In this dissertation I provide an ethnographic account of the testimony of four expert
witnesses who appeared before the Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada (the
Krever Inquiry) as they described the production of scientific knowledge and the role that
knowledge played in the struggle to protect the blood supply from being contaminated by AIDS
during the early 1980's. In doing so, I bring together the experts' testimony with contemporary
documents gathered by the Commission and interviews I conducted with participants in the
proceedings. Using insights drawn from the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and history,
I explore what the witnesses' accounts reveal about their understandings of their professional
world and its relationships with other worlds, especially that of public health policy making.
The Krever Inquiry offered a valuable opportunity for carrying out such an investigation. It
provided a site where science was not only used, it was talked about. The Inquiry invited those
involved in the blood system in the early 1980's to reflect upon and explain the beliefs and
actions which surrounded one of the worst public health disasters in Canadian history and it
asked the witnesses how similar catastrophes could be avoided in the future.
As a result, many of the issues addressed at the hearings reflect matters of current concern in
public health and medicine. The Inquiry addressed difficult issues surrounding the nature of
scientific knowledge and its application in health decision-making and policy formulation. This
study, therefore, may be of interest to those dealing with the problems surrounding uncertainty
and the management of public health crises. It may also be of interest to those dealing with
conflicts rising out of the intersection of different worlds of experience and practice, as well as to
those involved in the current initiatives to both make medical and public health institutions more
proactive, and inclusive, and public health decision-making more transparent.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10842 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Paterson, Timothy Murray |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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