Inmaculada de Melo-Martin's Books

The Fight Against Doubt

How to Bridge the Gap Between Scientists and the Public

By: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín,Kristen Intemann

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The Fight Against Doubt

How to Bridge the Gap Between Scientists and the Public

By: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín,Kristen Intemann

The lack of public support for climate change policies and refusals to vaccinate children are just two alarming illustrations of the impacts of dissent about scientific claims. Dissent can lead to confusion, false beliefs, and widespread public doubt about highly justified scientific evidence. Even more dangerously, it has begun to corrode the very authority of scientific consensus and knowledge. Deployed aggressively and to political ends, some dissent can intimidate scientists, stymie research, and lead both the public and policymakers to oppose important public policies firmly rooted in science. To criticize dissent is, however, a fraught exercise. Skepticism and fearless debate are key to the scientific process, making it both vital and incredibly difficult to characterize and identify dissent that is problematic in its approach and consequences. Indeed, as de Melo-Martín and Intemann show, the criteria commonly proposed as means of identifying inappropriate dissent are flawed and the strategies generally recommended to tackle such dissent are not only ineffective but could even make the situation worse. The Fight Against Doubt proposes that progress on this front can best be achieved by enhancing the trustworthiness of the scientific community and by being more realistic about the limits of science when it comes to policymaking. It shows that a richer understanding of the context in which science operates is needed to disarm problematic dissent and those who deploy it. This, the authors argue, is the best way forward, rather than diagnosing the many instances of wrong-headed dissent.

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Page Count

235

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190869240

ISBN 13

9780190869243

Taking Biology Seriously

What Biology Can and Cannot Tell Us about Moral and Public Policy Issues

By: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín

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Taking Biology Seriously

What Biology Can and Cannot Tell Us about Moral and Public Policy Issues

By: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín

Inmaculada de Melo-Martin carefully defend the importance of social and political policies to guide the bio ethical co-construction of a better life for all. As she argues with edifying balance, only by taking biology seriously can we become serious in appreciating its true benefits and counter the illusory hopes and fears that are often projected upon it."--Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines.

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Page Count

180

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0742549216

ISBN 13

9780742549210

Making Babies: Biomedical Technologies, Reproductive Ethics, and Public Policy

By: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín

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Making Babies: Biomedical Technologies, Reproductive Ethics, and Public Policy

By: Inmaculada de Melo-Martín

Each year, roughly a million new cases of cancer appear in the US, and more than 500,000 Americans die annually of premature death. Although medical progress has slowed cancer mortality, its incidence is increasing roughly six times faster than cancer mortality is decreasing. Breast cancer, in particular, has been increasing about one percent each year since 1973. At least two of the factors responsible for this surge in breast cancer are women's use of medically-prescribed synthetic hormones and the exposure of the entire population to chemicals such as dioxin. Both exposures increase the likelihood of breast cancer. Although many ethicists worry about involuntary societal imposition of chemicals such as dioxin, through industrial and agricultural processes, allegedly voluntary exposures also constitute both, a public-health problem and a biomedical-ethics difficulty. Physicians recommend synthetic hormones, for example, to women who apparently take them voluntarily. In the case of in vitro fertilization, doctors prescribe hormones to induce egg production and to increase the chances of reproduction for couples who are unable to have children. Despite the benefits of medical technologies such as hormone stimulation and in vitro fertilization, they also carry great risks. The price that childless women pay, for their opportunity to have children through in vitro fertilization, may be their own increased risk of diseases - such as breast cancer - that are hormone dependent.

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Page Count

228

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

9401721599

ISBN 13

9789401721592

Book's by Inmaculada de Melo-Martin

The Fight Against Doubt

The Fight Against Doubt

Taking Biology Seriously

Taking Biology Seriously

Making Babies: Biomedical Technologies, Reproductive Ethics, and Public Policy

Making Babies: Biomedical Technologies, Reproductive Ethics, and Public Policy

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