May 9, 2003

The Misuse of Race in Medical Diagnosis

By RICHARD S. GARCIA

I am a 39-year-old Hispanic male born in Stockton, Calif., to a mother who -- after many years of unwise eating -- has recently been diagnosed with diabetes and to a father I didn't know who floated away at the end of a needle in his sister's garage. I prefer being called Mexican to Hispanic, though I've never been to Mexico. I eat a fat American's diet. Speak American English. Although I don't smoke, I have been living in a big city with polluted air. An American city where I

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