Abstract:
This article provides ethical guidance on using race in health research as a variable or in defining the study population. To this end, a plain,
non-exhaustive checklist is provided for researchers and research ethics committees, preceded by a brief introduction on the need for
justification when using race as a variable or in defining a study population, the problem of exoticism, that distinctions pertain between
race, ethnicity and ancestry, the problematic naming of races, and that race does not serve well as a presumed biological construct in
genetic research.
