Colliding Categories: Haplotypes, Race & Ethnicity

The aim of this project is to explore the ethical and legal ramifications of the impending collision between biological and regulatory classifications of population subgroups in American society. The project will examine the interaction between biological categories emerging from the effort to create a haplotype map of the human genome and preexisting categories specifying race and ethnicity embodied in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget's Directive 15, which governs collection of data by all federal agencies and in federally funded research.

This two-year project will be led by researchers in the University of Minnesota's Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment &the Life Sciences with the collaboration of three Consortium members: the University's Center for Bioethics, Biomedical Genomics Center, and Institute of Human Genetics. The Project will also utilize a Working Group of scholars drawn from across the nation with expertise in law, pharmacology, human genetics, public health, anthropology, environmental health, sociology, and history. The Working Group will convene four times during a two-year period. The major goal of this project is to analyze how the information emerging from haplotype mapping will and should interact with preexisting social categories of race and ethnicity mandated by OMB Directive 15. The project will disseminate its findings through a consensus article, web-based materials, a national conference to be held during its second year, and a published symposium growing out of that conference.