Full Description
This book examines four medical innovations that epitomize the pitfalls of progress: DES, a synthetic estrogen prescribed to millions of women to prevent miscarriages, which produced devastating side effects; the artificial heart; the 1976 swine flu immunization program; and genetic engineering. Dutton and the contributors trace the human choices that govern medical and scientific innovation and explore the political, economic, and social factors that influence those choices. In the process, they reveal a deep gulf between the priorities of medical innovation and the concerns of the general public. They then propose concrete policy changes to help bridge that gulf.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Part I. Overview: 1. Introduction
2. Where are we and how did we get there?
Part II. Four Case Studies: 3. DES and the
elusive goal of drug safety
4. The artificial heart Thomas A. Preston
5. The swine flu immunization program
6. Genetic engineering: science and social
responsibility Diana B. Dutton and Nancy E.
Pfund
Part III. Lessons, Questions and Challenges: 7.
Risks and rights
8. Compensating the injuries of medical
innovation
9. What is fair? Medical innovation and justice
10. The role of the public
11. What is possible? towards medical progress
in the public interest
Notes
Index.
