Open AccessENOVID: AMERICA’S FIRST ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE
Author(s) -
Katerina Simantirakis
Publication year - 2021
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2563-9846
DOI - 10.15173/a.v1i1.2813
Subject(s) - distrust , pill , alternative medicine , medicine , family medicine , product (mathematics) , political science , traditional medicine , law , nursing , geometry , mathematics , pathology
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of involving the extended community in risk assessment of the applied sciences. To do this, the paper will be discussing the history of the first oral conceptive in America. Specifically, it discusses the Nelson Pill Hearings which was a very publicized trial intended to evaluate the safety of the oral contraceptive Enovid. The conclusion of this case study is that failing to involve the extended community (mainly, women taking the pill) resulted in a large distrust of authority. This distrust in the scientific community leads to their opinions being largely ignored and damaged the relationship between women and their doctors at the risk of women’s health. It was not until post-normal science ideals were implemented, that more women felt they could trust the safety of the product they were using. Failing to recognize the importance of involving the extended community in scientific breakthroughs created a barrier for the extended community to benefit from said scientific breakthroughs.