Science on Trial
The Silicone Breast Implant Controversy
Due Date: The last class in October or March. Mark Value: 25% Word Limit: 2000 words. Quotations and footnotes are not included in the word limit. List your word count at the bottom of your table of contents. Check off the instructions below after you have completed each section.
Regulations: Reports must be: Legible, preferably computer word-processed, or legibly hand-written, and stapled together. Write on the right side of the page. Number all pages sequentially. Remove all errors completely. Include a title page, a table of contents, introduction, conclusion and a bibliography. Write in grammatically correct sentences and paragraphs. Photocopies of your highlighted media articles should be mounted on the left page opposite your analysis of the article, with the quotations numbered or lettered sequentially. Identify every article and quotation with its author, title, source, date, page, and place. Articles must be photocopied legibly, without extraneous other articles. Articles longer than one page should open as centerfolds. List your report word total in the table of contents. Over - length reports will be marked to a higher mark standard. Include the instruction sheet for the term paper or report as the last page. That sheet will be checked for each instruction followed or omitted. Late assignments will lose 10% for up to one week late. Later reports will not be accepted without an approved absence form from the school medical officer or registrar. Follow the "Regulations for Term Papers and Reports," in the front of this package. Instructions in "How to Detect Bias in the Print Mass Media” by J. Asher offer a useful guide for all reports. Examine the sample papers available from the teacher as models for your report.
Students who work in small groups may earn higher marks. Your teacher will schedule library classes to help students learn research skills. Students will need about $5 in change for the photocopiers. Make photocopies of your table for practice, before filling the final copies.
Do not hesitate to ask the librarians for help. Please thank them. Do not write in or mark the index volumes.
Copies of "Science on Trial" are available in the Dawson Library and Book Store, and other bookstores.
Assignment Requirements
Students will examine the standards for scientific research on issues of public health, and compare those standards with media reports, and evidence allowed in the courts. Students will compare newspaper reports on silicone breast implants to the most recent scientific data; and examine the counts of articles on select health issues in the media. Instructions for magazine and newspaper articles searches follow below.
"Science on
Trial." by Marcia Angell
Your report should answer the questions below, at least. Additional information may provide higher marks.
Chapters
1, 2: Who were the women who wanted breast implants? Where they satisfied with them?
3, 5: How did the FDA ban on silicone breast implants [SBIs] affect SBI women?
3, 5: What was the scientific evidence for or against the health dangers from SBIs?
4, 8: What was the importance of money as an incentive for lawsuits; for the women with SBIs, and their lawyers?
1, 3, 5: How did the public decide whether SBIs (or any other product) is harmful?
6: How do researchers and doctors decide on product hazards, as compared with judges?
6: How did the media influence public and court responses to the SBI controversy?
6 What scientific evidence supported or refuted the link of SBIs and diseases? What evidence could not be examined scientifically?
6: Who was defined as an SBI 'expert'? How should 'expert' testimony be examined and what importance should it be given in court?
8: How could public fear about SBIs causing disease make healthy women feel ill?
9: Contrast
feminist 'many ways of knowing,' and 'alternative healing' with the scientific
method for medicine.
10: What evidence about SBIs hazards has been published from 1990 and since 1996?
... p. 2
p. 2 Science
on Trial - The Silicone Breast Implant Controversy
Newspaper and Magazine
Articles
Accuracy: Compare the data and evaluations of claims in "Science on Trial" to newspaper and magazine claims for accuracy, unproved assumptions, and anecdotal claims. Photocopy all the articles cited in your report.
1. Examine all the articles for evidence: medical, testimony from individual women plaintiffs, and unproved claims.
2. Examine when this evidence was available to the media, and whether it was examined for credibility.
3. Examine all the articles for prejudices and beliefs about health, scientific evidence, and sexism.
Media Bias: The media should be examined for evidence, unsupported beliefs and hysteria in the controversy over silicone breast implants (SBIs). Examine all the articles for bias techniques, as explained in How to Detect Bias in the Print Mass Media, in your course manual. Bias is shown by any attempt to persuade someone contrary to evidence, or without all of the relevant evidence. This section will provide half of your mark.
Newspaper Article Statistics
on Select Health Topics
Search for articles on the SBI controversy in two of the following: The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, The Canadian News Index, The Canadian Periodical Index, The New York Times Index and the Index Medicus, from 1990 to 1999. Complete one table for each of your two chosen media sources. Select at least ten newspaper articles, no more than two per year; and three magazine articles (NY Times Magazine included). Compare these 13+ articles with the evidence and analysis in "Science on Trial" on the hazards of SBIs, for scientific accuracy, misleading information, and public hysteria. Do not select articles from medical journals. Include at least one article that challenged the SBI - disease link.
Make tables for the number of articles per year, one table for each source, from 1985 to 1999, on the following topics: SBIs, lung cancer, suicide, automobile deaths, and any other two topics of your choice. Few articles may be found on SBIs in any index after 1995.
Newspaper Article Count on Select Health Topics
Source : ..............................
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Topic / Year |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
199+ |
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SBIs |
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Lung Cancer |
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Suicide |
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Automobile Deaths |
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...topic 6 |
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...topic 7 |
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NB: Additional information on SBIs may be found on the PBS -TV website in their "Frontline" series section, at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/implants/medical Other advocacy websites offer less accurate information, and should be examined similarly to the print media articles, above.
Enter
sample article with numbered indications here