am soc Bioethics and Humanities

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----l<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/gnrntjmsmhwdwtppdkgmmdmppkdpsrlfnhmwgcjrgyt_xchvdcsctdrrscbrcsd.html?a=&b=244&c=21989&d=2" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">eadership and mimicry: What the Greek-Roman biographer Plutarch knew about Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes</a> While a legal decision about her behavior as CEO lies…==

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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="F0F0F0"><font style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Jonathan D. Moreno

Birthplace: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/geo/113/000079873/" class="proflink" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;">Poughkeepsie, NY</a>

Gender: Male

Race or Ethnicity: White

Occupation: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/lists/228/000069021/" class="proflink" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;">Scholar</a>

Nationality: United States

Executive summary: Undue Risk

University: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/745/000068541/">BA, Hofstra University (1973)</a>

University: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/630/000079393/">PhD Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis (1977)</a>

Teacher: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/719/000068515/">Swarthmore College</a>

Teacher: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/364/000082118/">University of Texas at Austin</a>

Teacher: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/532/000068328/">George Washington University</a>

Scholar: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/517/000068313/">University of Pennsylvania (1995-97)</a>

    Professor: Pediatrics and Medicine, Health Science Center, SUNY Brooklyn (1997-98)

Professor: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/edu/551/000068347/">Biomedical Ethics, University of Virginia (1998-)</a>

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/298/000051145/">Center for American Progress</a> Senior Fellow

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/887/000104575/">American Society for Bioethics and Humanities</a> Past President

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/760/000051607/">Aspen Institute</a>

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/684/000167183/">Obama for America</a>

Author of books:

Paying the Doctor: Health Policy and Physician Reimbursement (<tt>1991</tt>)

Arguing Euthanasia: The Controversy Over Mercy Killing, Assisted Suicide, and the "Right to Die" (<tt>1995</tt>)

Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans (<tt>1999</tt>)

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<font style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" size="4" face="Times New Roman">George Weigel

Born: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/lists/950/000105635/" class="proflink" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;">1951</a>

Birthplace: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/geo/413/000069206/" class="proflink" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;">Baltimore, MD</a>

Gender: Male

Religion: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/lists/758/000094476/" class="proflink" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;">Roman Catholic</a>

Race or Ethnicity: White

Sexual orientation: Straight

Occupation: <a href="http://www.nndb.com/lists/199/000068992/" class="proflink" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;">Activist</a>

Nationality: United States

Executive summary: Ethics and Public Policy Center

Wife: Joan (three children)

University: BA, St. Mary's Seminary and University

    University: MA, University of St. Michael's College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Professor: St. Thomas Seminary School of Theology, Kenmore, WA

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/887/000104575/">American Society for Bioethics and Humanities</a>

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/587/000053428/">Discovery Institute</a>

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/040/000164545/">Ethics and Public Policy Center</a> Distinguished Senior Fellow

James Madison Foundation Founding President (1986-89)

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/821/000043692/">Project for the New American Century</a>

<a href="http://www.nndb.com/org/284/000118927/">Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</a> Scholar-in-Residence (1984-85)

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<div><header style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 1.5625rem;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0.3em; margin-top: 0px; line-height: 1;">Deceptive Art of Confirmation-Biased 'Science': Condemning Glyphosate</h1><h2 class="entry-subtitle" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.2;">With a little conflict of interest thrown in</h2><a href="https://reason.com/people/ronald-bailey/" title="Posts by Ronald Bailey" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 0px; font-weight: 700;">RONALD BAILEY</a> | <time class="updated" datetime="2017-10-31T10:35:00+00:00" style="box-sizing: border-box;">10.31.2017 10:35 AM</time><div class="rcom-social-tools" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5rem 0px; position: relative;"><a href="mailto:?subject=Shared+From+Reason.com%3A+The+Glyphosate+IARC+Cancer+Scandal%3A+The+deceptive+art+of+confirmation+biased+%27science%27-+conflicts+of+interest+too.&body=https%3A%2F%2Freason.com%2F2017%2F10%2F31%2Fthe-deceptive-art-of-confirmation-biased%2F" target="blank" class="rcom-social-tools--button rcom-social--email" data-ga-click="true" data-ga-action="social_share_click_email" data-ga-label="Social Share Click - Email" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 0.75em;"><span class="fas fa-envelope" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: inline-block; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: 1; text-rendering: auto; font-weight: 900;" /></a><a href="https://reason.com/2017/10/31/the-deceptive-art-of-confirmation-biased/printer/" target="blank" class="rcom-social-tools--button rcom-social--print" data-ga-click="true" data-ga-action="social_share_click_print" data-ga-label="Social Share Click - Print" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 0.75em;"><span class="fas fa-print" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: inline-block; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: 1; text-rendering: auto; font-weight: 900;" /></a><span data-link="https://reason.com/2017/10/31/the-deceptive-art-of-confirmation-biased/" class="rcom-social-tools--button rcom-social--copy-link" data-ga-click="true" data-ga-action="social_share_click_copyurl" data-ga-label="Social Share Click - Copy URL" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 0.75em; position: relative; cursor: pointer;"><span class="fas fa-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: inline-block; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: 1; text-rendering: auto; font-weight: 900;" /></div></header><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1rem;"><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;" /><figure class="alignright" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 0px 0.4rem 0.5rem; height: auto; float: right; max-width: 100%;"><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; text-align: right;">
</figcaption></a></figure>Anti-biotech activists hate the herbicide glyphosate, sold by Monsanto under the brand name Roundup. Those activists won a victory in 2015, when the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued a report classifying glyphosate as a "<a href="https://reason.com/blog/2015/03/25/does-popular-herbicide-glyphosate-cause" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">probable human carcinogen</a>." That conclusion stood in stark contrast to the findings of every <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/15/no-cancer-risk-to-using-glyphosate-weedkiller-says-eu-watchdog" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">regulatory agency</a> that has <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/17/494301343/epa-weighs-in-on-glyphosate-says-it-doesnt-cause-cancer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">evaluated glyphosate</a> over the past two decades, all of which have <a href="https://reason.com/blog/2016/05/16/glyphosate-not-a-cancer-risk-concludes-f" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">found</a> the herbicide safe for people and the environment.How did the World Health Organization diverge so sharply from the scientific consensus? By suppressing extensive evidence of glyphosate's safety. This month Reuters acquired a draft copy the IARC's glyphosate report. In the chapter on animal testing, references to numerous studies that found no link between glyphosate and cancer had been <a href="http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/who-iarc-glyphosate/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">systematically deleted</a>. The IARC <a href="http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/IARC_Response_Reuters_October2017.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">refused to explain</a> how that happened other than to refer to its consensus review process.Meanwhile, a <a href="http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/27552246" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">subsequent analysis</a> of how the IARC evaluated the animal testing studies found that "the classification of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen was the result of a flawed and incomplete summary of the experimental evidence." Many ongoing <a href="https://www.youhavealawyer.com/roundup/contact/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=Roundup" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">lawsuits</a> against Monsanto allege that the plaintiffs contracted either non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) or multiple myeloma (MM) as a result of exposures to glyphosate. Researchers in a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408444.2016.1214681" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">new review</a> of human epidemiological studies reported that they "did not find support in the epidemiologic literature for a causal association between glyphosate and NHL or MM."<span style="place-content: center; align-items: center; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; margin: 0.5rem auto;"><div align="center" class="advertisement freestar-incontent-ad freestar-ad-sidebar-container" id="anchor_first" style="box-sizing: border-box; place-content: center; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; background: rgba(224, 224, 224, 0.2); display: flex; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: column; -webkit-box-pack: center; text-align: center; border: 0px; margin: 0.5rem auto;" />I should note that one Christopher Portier <a href="http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Publications/internrep/14-002.pdf" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Publications/internrep/14-002.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1509737611402000&usg=AFQjCNFaHnpQd00oHofo8uD7cOw3QB7IYQ" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">chaired</a> the Advisory Group to Recommend Priorities for IARC Monographs and later served as an <a href="https://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Meetings/vol112-participants.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">invited specialist</a> to the group that evaluated studies related to glyphosate and the risk of cancer.* After he retired from National Center for Environmental Health, Portier began working in 2013 as a <a href="https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/04/18/glyphosate-battles-different-european-agencies-came-different-cancer-conclusions/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">senior scientist</a> with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), an activist group that has long <a href="https://www.edf.org/blog/2016/05/05/organic-farming-best-choice-our-environment-and-growing-world" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">opposed many aspects</a> of crop biotechnology and the use of glyphosate. In a 2014 letter to the journal Environmental Health Perspectives defending a <a href="https://reason.com/blog/2014/07/15/retracted-junk-science-study-claiming-bi" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">scientifically discredited study</a> on biotech corn, Portier listed only his <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/122/2/ehp.1408106.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">affiliation with the IARC</a>. The IARC did later <a href="https://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/PORTIER_Bio.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">disclose</a> Portier's affiliation with EDF, but the agency apparently failed to consider the possibility that his work with anti-pesticide activist group might amount to a conflict of interest.Nor is that Portier's only potential conflict of interest. Earlier this month, the European statistician David Zaruk <a href="https://risk-monger.com/2017/10/13/greed-lies-and-glyphosate-the-portier-papers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">reported</a> that "during the same week that IARC had published its opinion on glyphosate's carcinogenicity, Christopher Portier signed a lucrative contract to be a litigation consultant for two law firms preparing to sue Monsanto on behalf of glyphosate cancer victims." Portier also agreed not to disclose publically his consulting arrangements with the law firms.Over at Forbes, Albert Einstein College of Medicine cancer epidemiologist Geoffrey Kabat <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreykabat/2017/10/23/iarcs-glyphosate-gate-scandal/2/#5de463318eb1" style="box-sizing: border-box;">concludes</a>, "All of this points to a trusted agency redacting the evidence to suit its predetermined and preferred story-line." That sounds entirely correct. The IARC's evaluation methodologies need to be dramatically overhauled and its leadership changed.*[CORRECTION] Portier chaired the group that recommended IARC priorities for substances (including glyphosate) to be evaluated for carcinogencity through 2019, but served as an invited specialist with the group that concluded that glyphosate was a probable human carcinogen.Disclosure: About three years ago I bought 100 shares of Monsanto with my own money for $109 per share. They were going yesterday at $121.30 per share.</div></div><div></div>

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