%0 Journal Article
%T Standards and legacies: Pragmatic constraints on a uniform gene nomenclature
%A Colin Michael Egenberger Halverson
%J Social Studies of Science
%@ 1460-3659
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0306312719850335
%X Over the past half-century, there have been concerted efforts to standardize how clinicians and medical researchers refer to genetic material. However, practical and historical impediments thwart this goal. In the current paper I argue that the ontological status of a genetic mutation cannot be cleanly separated from its pragmatic role in therapy. Attempts at standardization fail due to the non-standardized ends to which genetic information is employed, along with historical inertia and unregulated local innovation. These factors prevent rationalistic attempts to ¡®modernize¡¯ what is otherwise trumpeted as the most modern of the medical sciences
%K classification
%K medical genetics
%K names and naming
%K nomenclature
%K standardization
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0306312719850335