University Alabama Press Scientific Characters: Rhetoric, Trust, and Character in a Breast Cancer Controversy: Rhetoric, Politics, and Trust in Breast Cancer Research (Rhetoric, Culture, and, Social Critique)

Review " . . . articulate, engaging, and insightful . . . By deconstructing the persona of the scientific and nonscientific characters and their reactions, Keränen builds a thoughtful text that invokes questions concerning the ethics and current structuring of the clinical trial system. The reader will appreciate her careful and structured handling of the events, the characters, and the ethics surrounding Datagate."--Nicole Parker, New York Journal of Books"The way that Keränen untangles the literature on ethos, persona, and voice is unique, compelling, and invaluable. Her application of that approach to the story of "Datagate" tells rhetoricians of science, scientists, policymakers, and laypeople a great deal about our current 'collective wishes and anxieties about biomedical science.' A well-written, strongly argued study."--Leah Ceccarelli, author of Shaping Science with Rhetoric: The Cases of Dobzhansky, Schrodinger, and Wilson"Scientific Characters does a great service to those who hold open the possibility that what occurred was in fact not a monumental tragedy or the fall from grace of a respected researcher but rather what happens daily as flawed human beings with multiple agendas conduct studies with much at stake. Although some investigators will be frustrated, and some patients will be disheartened, we applaud the reality that, by God's grace, research moves on and we learn things in spite of ourselves. Scientific Characters captures all of those complexities. I hope the public will understand that this is the way it is, that what happened to Bernard Fisher is not all that rare, and that political agendas in the biomedical research arena are not always pure." -- Victor G. Vogel, M.D., editor of Management of Patients at High Risk for Breast Cancer Product Description Addresses what happens when scientists, patients, and advocates are called to defend themselves in public concerning complex technical matters with direct implications for human life. Sheds light on the challenges faced by scientists and citizens as science becomes more bureaucratized, dispersed, and accountable to varied publics. About the Author Lisa Keränen is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Communication at the University of Colorado at Denver.