The Food and Drug Administration and the Limits of Contraceptive Drug Use: The Experimental and Criminal Justice Use of Depo-Provera

30 Pages Posted: 5 Aug 2014

Date Written: 2014

Abstract

Depo-Provera is a three month injectable female contraceptive drug, a product of The Upjohn Company, that held out the promise that it could play a important role in chemically controlling the behavior of sex offenders who molest children. The Food and Drug Administration has never ap-proved the drug for this purpose, a prerequisite for the agency to granting the drug approval. The story of the drug's use by clinical psychologists and psychiatrists since 1966 and by state trial court judges as a probation and parole condition can be told by Dr. Judith Weisz, a reproductive biolo-gist at the University of Pennsylvania's Hershey Medical Center, and Roger Gauntlett, an Upjohn heir, who was ordered by a Michigan judge to use the drug as a probation condition.

Suggested Citation

Green, William, The Food and Drug Administration and the Limits of Contraceptive Drug Use: The Experimental and Criminal Justice Use of Depo-Provera (2014). APSA 2014 Annual Meeting Paper, American Political Science Association 2014 Annual Meeting, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2303163

William Green (Contact Author)

Morehead State University ( email )

Morehead, KY 40351
United States

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