#10 Danielle Allen: Should Laypeople Make Health Policy Decisions?

Bio(un)ethical

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Danielle Allen, professor of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy at Harvard and Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, about the extent to which we should involve laypeople in decisions about health and science policy through democratic, participatory processes.

(00:00) Our introduction
(08:47) Interview begins
(12:23) Power-sharing in the domains of health and science policy
(16:23) Is representative democracy enough?
(21:03) Does power-sharing always require democratic mechanisms?
(24:13) What role should professional ethicists play in shaping policy?
(31:03) Does power-sharing produce other substantive benefits?
(32:56) Trade-offs between power-sharing processes and good outcomes
(39:38) Is respectful civic engagement a realistic goal in our polarized society?
(47:46) The problem of regulatory capture
(52:31) Worries about overburdening laypeople

Mentioned or Referenced:

• Danielle Allen, Justice by Means of Democracy
• Danielle Allen, Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus
• The Ezra Klein Show, Transcript: Ezra Klein Interviews Danielle Allen
• Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century
• Educating for American Democracy, Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy
• Medical University of South Carolina, Community-Engaged Research
• STAT, Expert panel votes down Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug, and rebukes the FDA in the process
• The New York Times, Inside a Campaign to Get Medicare Coverage for a New Alzheimer’s Drug
• The New York Times, How an Unproven Alzheimer’s Drug Got Approved
• Fierce Pharma, Big Pharma's shelling out big-time to patient organizations. Is there any quid pro quo?
• The San Francisco Chronicle, 87 permits, 1,000 days of meetings and $500,000 in fees: How bureaucracy fuels S.F.’s housing crisis

Bio(un)ethical is a bioethics podcast written by Leah Pierson and Sophie Gibert, with editing and production by Audiolift.co. Our music is written by Nina Khoury and performed by Social Skills. We are supported by a grant from Amplify Creative Grants.