because of this (via the new york times):
it is disheartening that the Bush administration has been intervening in court to block lawsuits filed by people seeking compensation from manufacturers for harm allegedly caused by drugs or medical devices. As described by Robert Pear in last Sunday’s Times, the administration has argued in several cases that individual consumers have no right to sue for such injuries if the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. If the Bush administration’s campaign proves broadly successful, people injured by drugs or medical devices may be left without legal recourse, no matter how just their complaints.
Now, why would the Bush administration do such a thing?
The administration argues that allowing consumers to sue the manufacturers would undermine federal regulation of drugs and devices by encouraging lay judges and juries to second-guess the experts at the F.D.A. The result could be a hodgepodge of conflicting judgments around the country as to the safety of a product and the need to change warning labels. Skittish manufacturers might then remove good products from the market or issue scary warnings that would discourage their use.
This seems like it should be one of the “that’s outrageous!” tidbits from reader’s digest. what’s next? you can’t sue your doctor for malpractice because you can’t trust a court decision regarding a medical matter. If a drug or device is faulty and causes damage to its user, than the consumer should have legal recourse, FDA-approved or not. The government should exist to protect the people, not businesses and conglomerates.
As the article says, “the F.D.A. is not infallible.” Pharmaceutical companies are all too quick to rush to get new drugs on the market, without adequate testing. They aren’t even required to publish all studies done during trials, and the only ones they do publish are favorable. Since the FDA and the CDC are in bed with these companies (how many companies manufacture the flu vaccine — TWO? — that’s BILLIONS in profit — especially since they ran out of it this past year, and it wasn’t even for the right flu!), it seems like the current enemy of the United States is its citizens.
So what if it forces a product off of the shelves? Perhaps then the company would actually have to come up with a better product. The FDA has approved numerous drugs that have been pulled from shelves because they were more harmful than good. Which adolescent anti-depressant was it recently that actually caused its users to become suicidal? Perhaps they should test drugs and products more carefully before they approve them in the first place. But that won’t happen — it’s too hard to get out of bed once you’re in it.
Perhaps we could stop being a country so infatuated with narcotics. Between the overuse of antibiotics in this country (hello, invincible bacteria!), the recommendation of mercury-laced, annual vaccines (flu-free and jab-free for how many years now?), and a pill to treat everything from heartburn you don’t have (prilosec for two straight weeks anyone?) to erectile dysfunction (this is the latest fad to hit the bar scene for those too inebriated to perform) to birth “control” (let’s pump hormones into ourselves! won’t it be fun?) to encouraging millions of americans to begin taking statins for cholesterol as part or preventative treatment, we have become an addicted society, with a pill to cure anything that ails you (or doesn’t).
I do think that advent of pharmaceuticals is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but we are over-prescribed too many things for too few good enough reasons. And if one of those products should damage you or a family member, you should have the right to seek justice and compensation. after all, you can’t truly call it informed consent, if the information has been purposefully kept from you by the affairing couple of the government (who should be faithful to us and be taking measures to protect us) and big business.
sneaking around behind the public’s back is a good way to ensure fewer votes for yourself, mr. president. or did you think we wouldn’t notice? you’ve been doing it long enough.
shame on you.