Political Quotes

“this debate can come down to an example involving one individual, a young girl, and one company. The young girl is Tara Ransom, whose story is told in today's Wall Street Journal, and who with her parents has come to my office. Tara is one of 50,000 hydrocephalics in the United States with a condition that previously could not be treated at all and was a literal terror to its victims and to their parents. She has, nonetheless, led a normal life, almost a normal life, due to a series of silicon shunts which have to be replaced every year or so due to her growth rate. It is now becoming next to impossible for Tara to get such a silicon shunt because the one company, Dow-Corning, that is willing to manufacture it, is in bankruptcy largely due to product liability litigation and is threatened with class actions. Dow-Corning simply manufactures the silicone. In one of these shunts its net return is $1 or $2. As the Presiding Officer as a physician knows, not every medical device works perfectly at all times and under all circumstances. I think it is almost inevitable that among those 50,000 hydrocephalics, or the numbers of thousands who use these shunts at some point or another, one of them is going to die, and there will be a threat of a lawsuit against every one who had anything to do with the shunt. The manufacturer of the material itself would be brought right into that lawsuit.”