Projit Bihari Mukharji’s lecture on “Collecting Bodies, Bodily Collectives” explores how in India genetic research has been done to create a caste system between different socioeconomic groups. Countless studies have been done to disprove the idea of a single human genome and propagate a narrative of “unity in diversity”. In this lecture, Projit Mukharji touched on the Indian Genome Variation Initiative and their research concerning pools of genomic difference within India. The history of genome collection though is extremely controversial and included deception and theft. Dr. Mukharji provides us with some stories of scientists lying to patients, claiming to be treating them while just using them for their blood. Or scientists going into sacred graveyards and stealing corpses in the name of research. These methods are beyond unethical and made me want to look more into the history of unethical medical/ research practices done here in the United States.
Probably one of the most popularized examples of unethical medical malpractice is the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The study involved around 600 black men; 399 with syphilis and 201 who did not have the disease. Researchers advertised the experiments as a “Free Blood Test; Free Treatment”, where the patients were promised free meals, free physicals, and free burial insurance. However, the real study was the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.” The men never told they had syphilis and were never given treatment for it but were just examined until they were killed by the disease. There are also examples of drugs like BiDil, which is a drug targeted at African Americans with heart failure. Anatomically Black people have the same hearts as white people, but this drug is an example of how science is a tool to reinforce racism. The United States has a history of using Black Americans as the guinea pigs for their science experiments and though they claim the findings they gain from these unethical measures are worth it, I have to disagree. White people have constructed this idea of race and have since been using it to assert their superiority in the world and science is just one of the many tools used to do it.
After leaving this lecture, I was anxious because, with the expanding world of scientific innovation especially in biometrics, we as a population could be in danger due to the sinister history genomic science has when it comes to race. With the growing collections of DNA by means of harmless activities of trying to trace your ancestry through things like 23 and me or Ancestry.com, I feel like many communities of color may be placed in compromising positions in the name of science.
During the questions and answers part of the discussion, one of the professors in the audiences asked about the examination of patients and the history of uninformed consent in the past and how that affects modern science. This question resonated with me because there are so many examples of research gained through nefarious practices and if it should still be used to this day. Dr. Mukharji’s response was that people should be aware of the history of medical practices but focus on doing something good with it. I understand this frame of thinking because the damage has been already been done so might as well let some good come from it. But there is still the need to learn and verify these findings that many accept without question.