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Article: Assessing the science of genetically modified crops: the new frontier of public health policy.
- Article from:
- Health Law Review
- Article date:
- March 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Health Law Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"Good science should inform public health policy." (1) Such a claim seems self-evident; however, when matters of public health policy are addressed by the Courts, the role of science becomes murky. At the best of times, when the science is unambiguous, public health decisions necessitate that a complex matrix of legal, political, economic and ethical considerations be weighed against one another. (2) More often public health decisions are based on uncertainties, as "the information that most scientific research provides to health and environmental regulation is incomplete and inconclusive, both in identifying and in quantifying the risks that these hazards pose." (3) It ...