Science friction: cervical cancer and the contesting of medical beliefs

This paper describes the ways in which beliefs about cervical cancer became contested within the medical profession in New Zealand from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. Medical dissenters who contested orthodox beliefs about cervical cancer during this period challenged the medical profession in a number of ways. In particular, professional unity and authority were called into question and threatened to turn professional uncertainties into public anxieties. Professional strategies were employed to cope with knowledge claims that threatened existing medical beliefs. The work of Ludwik Fleck forms the basis of a discussion of the ways in which medical knowledge is located and negotiated within a social context. This case study shows that closure of disputes over knowledge claims about cervical cancer occurred largely as a result of an inquiry into medical practice presided over by the laity and through an appeal to the moral as well as the scientific-technical.