[Paleopsych] Kenan Malik: Is this the future we really want? Different drugs for different races

[Gerry]

Lynn writes:
>>In the American Psychological 
Association the Received Wisdom is that there is no such thing as race, 
yet in medicine there are some differences. It is not biology that makes 
them argue this way, IMHO, but Political Correct Thinking.>>

Steve says:
 >>The medicine of the future will be custom medicine, tailored
to the individual on the basis of careful testing, rather than
the shotgun approach we use now.>>

Custom medicine tailored to our physical and psychological well being is 
the ideal for which we need to strive.  Yet in the meantime, in the here 
and now, we need to address the medical needs of groups rather than 
individuals.  Medical studies have been able to profile certain ethnic 
groups and their propensity for certain diseases.  This doesn't mean 
that everyone in a particular group, say African American, will contract 
sickle cell anemia but it's a good place to begin.   If the APA wishes 
to deny the term "race" then let them use "ethnic group".  Either way, 
disease clusters in families and ethnic groups.  Eliminating the term 
"race" in no way eradicates disease.

Gerry Reinhart-Waller