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An Investigation on the Evolution and Genetics of Face Shape Sex Differences, and the Ethical Issues of Sex/gender-inclusionary Policies

出版	Pennsylvania State University, 2020
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=oNf_zQEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Sex differences in humans are not only conspicuous, but their study is relevant from evolutionary, health, and ethical perspectives. In this dissertation, I specifically look at sex differences in face shape, and the ethical challenges faced by sex/gender-inclusionary policies in biomedicine. In Chapter 1 I summarize the main theoretical frameworks to understand the evolution, development, and genetics of sex differences in humans, particularly in face shape. In the same vein, I trace the main ethical arguments that have risen to challenge the importance of studying sex differences in biomedicine. In Chapter 2, by using haplotype-based methods to reconstruct ancestry relationships between unrelated individuals, and using a dense landmark registration to estimate sex differences in face shape, I look for patterns of sex differences that are common and divergent between human populations. Specifically, I conclude that patterns of sex difference in face shape vary across human populations, mainly in terms of the relative contribution of the anteroposterior movement of the browridge and the length of the midface. In Chapter 3, I study the genetic underpinnings of sex differences in face shape by using a sex-stratified genome-wide association study on facial masculinity/femininity. I find 22 suggestive loci that show divergent effects in men and women, that is, a genetic effect that while increases facial femininity in men, decreases it in women (or vice versa). Genes overlapping these loci show enrichment in previous associations with waist-to-hip ratio and enrichment of weak transcription and enhancers in craniofacial embryonic tissues. Furthermore, I find common genetic effects in men and women that replicate previous association studies in face shape. In Chapter 4, I address the ethical challenges of sex/gender-inclusionary policies in biomedicine. I try to unveil the mechanisms that mediate the relation between knowledge and care, by developing an understanding of the political-economy of the bioeconomy. By characterizing the conditions of possibility of the bioeconomy in terms of increasing public-private ventures, and the increasing financial modes of accumulation through intellectual property rights, I argue that research participation takes a form of "primitive accumulation" or "accumulation by dispossession". In that sense, research participants are analogous to natural resources, and the knowledge produced in the bioeconomy is monopolized and enclosed by ever-encompassing monopoly rights. I further show how the participation of women in the bioeconomy is fundamental in various research endeavors, where the risks are usually downplayed, and their participation is usually hidden. This form of structural relation between biomedical research and participation is one of expropriation, and I argue that a new structural relation of reciprocity is needed. Finally, in Chapter 5, I summarize the main findings of this dissertation and I draw a few sketches on an underlying and implicit aspect of this dissertation, the concepts of sex and gender.