Your Body, My Property: The Problem of Colonial Genetics in a Postcolonial World

Abstract

The offspring of human genetics and anthropology, anthropological genetics exists in the shadow of the eugenic legacy of one parent and the colonial legacy of the other. The most critical issue faced by the diversity project, however, is one that osteologists were spared: the value of the biological object itself as a commodity. The chapter suggests that the same guidelines as govern the disposition of osteological specimens should govern genetic specimens as well. Contemporary ethical concerns in human genetics generally focus on four issues: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. These are directly applicable to anthropological genetics and raise significant issues about whether and how they can be met in a cross-cultural context. The Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) fared exceedingly poorly using the ethical criteria generally in place for medical genetics. The HGDP was designed by and for the scientific community. Its subject was one that the scientists were interested in: microevolution.