84

The study examines the notion of “race” and its uses in medicine, biology, and medical research in the United States from the late twentieth century to the early twenty-first century. It attempts to identify the factual but also theoretical reasons why these notions were first used, then examined, and finally questioned in the United States. It intends to pave the way for research to be undertaken on the argumentative logic underlying any use of the term “race.” Finally, it puts forward the hypothesis according to which the use and the function of the term “race” respond to the implicit tendency of a classificatory conception or intention of medicine that seeks to enter the heart of the individual in their most imperceptible and least personal aspects. The most extreme individualization of the treatment of diseases, to which medicine could be reduced, would lead to the depersonalization of patients by classifying them into groups, of which “race” is an example.