Exploring genetic differences in the new DNA age
When scientists first decoded the human genome in 2000, they werequick to portray it as proof of humankind’s remarkable similarity. TheDNA of any two people, they emphasized, is at least 99 percentidentical.
But new research is increasingly exploring theremaining fraction to explain differences between people of differentcontinental origins.
Scientists, for instance, have recentlyidentified the small changes in DNA that account for the pale skin ofEuropeans, the tendency of Asians to sweat less and West Africans’resistance to certain diseases.
At the same time, geneticinformation is slipping out of the laboratory and into everyday life,carrying with it the inescapable message that people of different raceshave different DNA. Ancestry tests tell customers what percent of theirgenes are from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. The heart-diseasedrug BiDil is marketed exclusively to African Americans, who seemgenetically predisposed to respond to it. Jews are offered prenataltests for genetic disorders rarely found in other ethnic groups.
Cowardice abounds however. Ed.
Such developments are providing some of the first tangible benefits ofthe genetic revolution. Yet some social critics fear they may also begiving long-discredited racial prejudices a new potency. The notionthat race is more than skin-deep, they fear, could undermine principlesof equal treatment and opportunity that have relied on the presumptionthat we are all created equal.