There is an interesting side issue, about science and American law, to this Dispatches, Science story about research on abortions, featuring an interview with Tracy Weitz, one of the most prominent abortion researchers in the United States. Comments Weitz:
“there’s a whole body of criticism — a lot of it around climate change — over whether courts should have anything to do with science…. There was a recognition that these issues were really complicated — more science-y — and you needed to have judges who had specific expertise to decide them. Now, whether they’re about environmental science or, in our case, health-related science, these cases are being spread out across multiple courts, and judges with absolutely no scientific training are being asked to make adjudications about science. Should we be training judges to review science? Should we be thinking about specialty courts with scientific expertise?
“One of the more troubling findings is the way that controversy has become a reason to discount science …”
The story, Tracy Weitz: Amid Abortion Debate, the Pursuit of Science, is here.