Science as Club to Snuff Debate, Choice, and Conscience
Posted by Anthony on April 23, 2009
The latest illustration of a growing and worrisome trend in scientism in our society comes in this story about the morning after pill being made available without a prescription to “17 year olds.” Here are some quotes:
Seventeen-year-olds will be able to buy the “morning-after” emergency contraceptive without a doctor’s prescription, a decision that conservatives denounced as a blow to parental supervision of teens but that women’s groups said represents sound science.
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“It’s a good indication that the agency will move expeditiously to ensure its policy on Plan B is based solely on science,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit.
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The battle over access to Plan B has dragged on for the better part of a decade, through the terms of three FDA commissioners. Among many in the medical community, it came to symbolize the decline of science at the agency because top FDA managers refused to go along with the recommendations of scientific staff and outside advisers that the drug be made available with no age restrictions.
One of the questions that comes to my mind when I read this is how ‘no age restrictions’ means in practice ‘available to 17 year olds.’ Someone needs to check on this. It smells strongly like doublespeak to me. I have the feeling that by ‘no age restrictions’ they really mean ‘no age restrictions.’ I wonder if perhaps the headline said “FDA OK’s Morning After Pills for 13 Year Olds” the reaction would be quite different. I don’t see how that is precluded by the information provided in this article. But I digress.
This story is a perfect illustration of scientism and its dangers to our society. The idea that something is intrinsically morally correct by virtue of being ‘scientific’ is a non sequitur, certainly, but nonetheless coming to be quite common. Science gave us the atom bomb, too, but it is self-evident that the decision to use it should be political. But can the decision to use it ever be scientific? (The movie IRobot comes to mind, here).
Is there any way to get from an observation of reality or increase in technology to “And you ought…” ? Read the rest of the entry… »
