Piecemeal Tort Reform

The Washington Post
Saturday March 1, 2008; Page A18

This article examines recent Supreme Court proceedings dealing with medical devices in patients. The author identifies a recent case that was brought to the Supreme Court about a heart device that burst during heart surgery. The patient survived and sued the company; however, the Supreme Court ruled that the company was in fact not liable because it was preapproved by the FDA. However, the author then goes on to discuss that if cases like this keep being passed by the Supreme Court, people could eventually not be able to take legal action against companies that have wronged them. He also pointed out that the FDA is understaffed and underpaid and that to totally rely on their approval of a product would not be a reasonable thing. He then offered several solutions, such as improving FDA funding and increasing staff, keeping pressure on legislatures to pass tort reform bills to stop frivilous litigation, and to even set up a federal fund, like that for vaccines, for people who are wrongfully hurt by FDA approved products.

This is the best article I've read all year. The author was completely unbiased; you really don't know which way he prefers. He talks about the benefits for the businesses and the concerns for the people with this new kind of action by the Supreme Court. He offered MANY solutions that were well thought out. He also had a lot of references and was very well educuated on the topic.