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Medical controversies

Andrew Marr discusses scientific breakthroughs and missteps with Joshua Mezrich, Angela Saini, Caroline Criado Perez and Richard Ashcroft.

Dr Joshua Mezrich is a leading transplant surgeon. He tells Andrew Marr how death and life are intimately connected in his field of expertise. And he explains the extraordinary breakthroughs that have emerged in transplant surgery, along with the ethical questions that arise when choosing who will be given the chance of a new beginning.

Scientific research needs to be evidence-based. But it can too easily be based on underlying assumptions and biases. The science writer Angela Saini reports on the history - and recent revival - of race science, a field of study that sees race as a biological fact.

Caroline Criado Perez exposes the gender biases in medical and scientific research. She argues that women have often been excluded from the data which has had a huge impact on the efficacy of the pills prescribed, and the treatment offered.

The latest promise of better healthcare is personalised medicine, which aims to get the right dose to the right patient at the right time. But Richard Ashcroft, Professor of Biomedical Ethics, cautions that grouping patients by their genetic constitution may well create new forms of inequality.

Producer: Katy Hickman

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Mon 20 May 2019 21:30

Dr Joshua Mezrich

Dr Joshua Mezrich is an associate professor of surgery in the division of multi-organ transplantation at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, USA.

How Death Becomes Life - Notes from a Transplant Surgeon is published by Atlantic Books

Caroline Criado Perez

Caroline Criado Perez is a writer, broadcaster and award-winning feminist campaigner.

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men is published by Chatto & Windus

Angela Saini

Angela Saini is an award-winning science journalist, author and broadcaster.

Superior: The Return of Race Science is published by Fourth Estate on 21st May.

Richard Ashcroft

Richard Ashcroft is Professor of Bioethics. He teaches medical law and ethics at both undergraduate and postgraduate level in the Department of Law at Queen Mary University of London.

Broadcasts

  • Mon 20 May 2019 09:00
  • Mon 20 May 2019 21:30

Podcast