Statistics on the health conditions of human groups have been classified according to racial group and then used to support scientific arguments linking a difference in phenotype to a biological essential of race. Epidemiological studies on high blood pressure illustrate the strength that genetic hypotheses can have in assigning a causative role to race. Taking these genetic explanations of the etiology of hypertension, I seek to identify: the etiological presuppositions grounding the arguments that racialize this pathology, the alternative hypotheses found in the scientific literature, and the ethical aspects implicit to such studies.
race; hypertension; genetics; epidemiology; ethics