Monthly Archives: March 2006

Guidant Corp. Cited by Senate Committee

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) has introduced legislation that would toughen penalties for companies and their executives who sold products that cause injury or death. Presently, there are only civil penalties for such behavior. In announcing the legislation, Specter singled out Guidant Corp. and their defective defibrillators as an example of actions that would be targeted by the legislation.

Sex Abuse-Why in the Church?

I received a comment from another blogger about my post on the Irish Catholic Church abuse scandal. The person noted that people weren’t asking the right questions in order to find out why this happened and continues to happen.
Well, unfortunately, we can’t know the reasons until we get a look at the internal church documents. Until that time, we can only speculate about why this has occurred. Some blame celibacy, others the clerical culture. The truth is we really can’t do more than speculate unless we see what really happened. In order to do that, we need to look at the inner workings of the church. That’s what lawsuits can do. They can uncover the truth and expose it to the light of day. Hopefully, after such exposure, the evil of child abuse dies a quick death before victimizing anyone else!

Maryland Considers Helping Sex Abuse Victims

The Maryland Legislature is hearing public comments concerning two pending bills that would alter the present statute of limitations barring most sexual abuse victims from access to the courts and justice. One of the bills would open a two year window during which abuse victims could file a lawsuit against the perpetrator of the abuse.
The Catholic Church in Maryland strongly opposes such change to the present law. That should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed this tragedy since 2002.

Maryland Considering Opening Statute of Limitations on Sex Abuse

The Maryland House Judiciary Committee heard public comments on two bills that would alter the present statute of limitations laws concerning sexual abuse. One bill, sponsored by Pauline A. Menes, would allow victims to file a civil claim until they reached the age of 42. The other bill would open a two year window during which survivors of child sexual abuse could file lawsuits against the perpetrators.
Of course, the Maryland Catholic bishops oppose both bills.
I urge any survivors of sexual abuse, especially those abused in Maryland, to contact Maryland state legislators and ask them to give these bills a favorable hearing.

Guidant Consultant Advised Company to Release Defect Data

A Guidant Corporationconsultant told the medical device company that it had an ethical obligation to inform doctors of defects in its defibrillator device. Dr. Richard N. Fogoros, also told company executives that their decision to withhold such data, while statistically defensible, was questionable. In one of two lengthy memos to Guidant executives, Fogoros wrote that the company violated a “sacred obligation” it had to doctors by interposing its medical judgment for theirs. He also noted that Guidant had a clear conflict of interest that would naturally lead it to disclose product failures only when “absolutely necessary.”

CA Judge Denies Taser’s Motion to Dismiss

A California judge has dismissed Taser International’s Motion to Dismiss in a lawsuit arising from a 2004 death of a Monterey CA man who had been tasered. Taser International, Inc., asked the district court to dismiss the claims of the Rosa family, contending that (1) Michael Rosa’s death was not reasonably foreseeable, (2) its product is not inherently dangerous, and (3) it had no duty to warn of the dangers of its product.
In denying Taser International’s Motion to Dismiss, Judge Fogel ruled that Taser has a duty to design and manufacture its products to avoid foreseeable dangers arising from their use, and to warn its customers and users of any foreseeable dangers that could arise when people such as Michael Rosa are shocked repeatedly and then subjected to aggressive restraint procedures. Taser International has been ordered to respond to plaintiffs’ complaint.

FDA Panel Recommends Tysabri

An FDA panel has recommended that the risky and controversial MS drug Tysabri be returned to the market. The panel argued that the decision to use the drug should be made by the doctor and the patient, in spite of evidence that the drug causes a deadly brain disease. If the FDA accepts the panel’s recommendation, it would be only the second time a drug was returned to the market after having been removed for safety reasons.

Taser in Texas

There’s an excellent feature article published in the Fort Worth weekly concerning the controversial Taser stun gun. The article recounts the instances in which a Taser is used. One of the most compelling aspects of the article is the individual accounts of the circumstances in which people have been Tasered. This allegedly non-lethal stun gun has been used in non-violent situations such as when a 66 year old grandmother was honking her horn trying to park her car. By the way, she was in her own driveway at the time she was tasered. In spite of these accounts, the majority of police departments and of course, Taser International continue to insist that the weapons are safe and should be used liberally-all evidence to the contrary.

Irish Priest Abuse Scandal

While the priest abuse scandal is nothing new in Ireland-it’s been a subject in the news for the last 20 years-the latest news from none other than the Archbishop of Dublin has startled some observers. The Arbishop’s report counts 120 priests as having sex abuse allegations made against them from 350 victims. With no end in sight, the Irish Church continues to lose credibility and influence in what was once known as a bastion of Catholicism.