Friday, June 24, 2005

A Drug That's Not For Me

The FDA has approved a new heart medicine that, statistically speaking, works for black people but not for white folks.

Strangely, at least one bioethicist seems to see a problem with this.

'"There are many, many who claim these use of [racial] categories may not have any biological meaning, only social meaning, and basing medical decisions on them may be problematic,'' said David Magnus, director of the Stanford Medical Center for Biomedical Ethics."'

Well. Imagine that. "Many, many." Just how many is that? And just because a lot of people make such a claim, does that give the claim some kind of standing? Is scientific truth something we vote on?

And if scientific testing reveals the drug somehow works differently for black people, isn't that excellent evidence that biology is somehow involved in the whole black/white distinction?

Sometimes I wonder where they get these guys -
"Ethical experts" who specialize
In frowning and looking askance
At each medical advance.

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