Adjudicating cancer causation: scientific, political, and legal conflicts

Lawsuits concerning cancer causation resort to scientific argumentation. Yet, the apparent ambiguities of science confuse the courts, the juries, and the public. This is especially so with regard to official regulatory definitions of cancer causation that carry the weight of law. At the heart of this problem is a prevailing misunderstanding of science and the scientific method, and of the limits of current scientific knowledge about cancer. Moreover, current regulatory policies encourage the public to perceive official cancer risk assessments as if they were scientifically derived and accepted, even though official fine print readily admits they are not. Some recent court decisions have begun to recognize these difficulties with a body of precedent, and this may result in future rulings influenced more by objective appraisals than by reliance upon official but contingent assumptions.