Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues,americast.usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Thu, Sep 10 1992 Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 05:44:18 EDT Message-ID: 09-10 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update Sept. 10, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Thursday morning in USA TODAY: Liability, Carjackings. TODAY'S DEBATE - PRODUCT LIABILITY: USA TODAY'S OPINION: The Senate is to undertake an interesting exercise in excess (Thursday): Voting whether to carpet bomb a problem that could be batted into submission with a fly swatter. Up for a vote: a bill ... to rearrange how people seek redress for products that hurt or kill - such as Ford Pintos that had exploding gas tanks or the Dalkon Shield birth control device that left women sterile. If senators let themselves get sucked into the vortex of misinformation this plan has attracted, they could crimp a useful tool for deterring dangerous products - people's right to sue. Backers say businesses need more protection against opportunists hunting jury awards that make lottery jackpots look like chump change. They say suits threaten to bury businesses and keep U.S. products from the market. Not so, says the evidence. Two-thirds of 232 major U.S. corporations told the business-funded Conference Board liability accounts for less than 1% of total costs. A 1988 Rand study found no major product other than one drug kept from the U.S. market solely because of liability concerns. ... The European Community is moving closer to the U.S. system. Senators appear to be revising the worst glitches out of the bill, and some ideas deserve salvage. For instance, people would be encouraged to resolve disputes in ways other than trials. Sound and fair alternatives could speed results and curb costs, but the bill sets no standards for them. It should, so consumers know they're being nudged onto a faster route to resolution - not a detour. Improve the law? Certainly. But with scalpels, not saturation bombing. OTHER VIEW: LINDA CHAVEZ, John M. Olin fellow at the Manhattan Institute: Liability suits cost U.S. businesses, consumers and the government at least $100 billion a year, and growing. But the real costs can't be calculated in economic terms alone. It's estimated that liability adds 50% to the price of a stepladder, more than doubles the price of a football helmet and increases the cost of some vaccines for childhood diseases 20-fold. What we don't know is how many lives have been lost or simply made more difficult or unpleasant because liability laws have driven safe products from the market or kept them from reaching there in the first place. And women of child-bearing age have been among the chief victims of the liability revolution. The USA used to be the leader in reproductive research - not anymore. ... The case of Bendectin, an anti-nausea drug used for decades by millions of pregnant women, documents why. As Peter Huber details in "Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom," there is no credible scientific evidence that Bendectin causes any birth defects, but that didn't stop plaintiffs' lawyers from suing the company and occasionally winning. ... the drug's manufacturer decided it didn't need the headache and quit making Bendectin in 1983. As a result, there is no drug available now for women ... who suffer severe, even life-threatening nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Those who claim to be interested in women's health issues ought to be clamoring for product liability reform. Without it, research and development in contraception and reproduction will continue to lag and women suffer. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON WORRYING ABOUT CARJACKINGS: PRINCETON, N.J., Teresa Keves, 42, secretary: Quite a lot. I live very close to Trenton, and it's been going on a lot there. I had to go there yesterday. I was a little leery. I'm a New Yorker, so usually things like that don't scare me, but I tell you, I was scared. I'm a working mom - I have other things to worry about. SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Dale Dean Daniels, 60, paint salesman: I don't worry about it here in Springfield until I get over into the projects, where they are known for that. Someone tried to rape my daughter-in-law as she was going to work. The only thing that saved her is that she could push on the horn. ARTESIA, Calif., Ofelia Melendrez, 23, corporate intern: Two of my cousins were at a hamburger stand late at night. Two guys came in. One had a knife and the other a gun. They asked for the car. They got into a fight, and my cousin ended up hurting his hand. They took the car. I worry about it a lot. FREDERICK, Md., Gary Rhoderick, 37, supply clerk: No, but I worry about it getting closer to home because I do have two children. My wife goes out a lot with the kids, and I'm worried that something might happen to her. Carjackers should be punished to the full extent of the law. A lot of first-time offenders get off lightly. NASHVILLE, Tenn., Lula Collier, 50, university v.p.: I'm not sure that worry is the word I'd use. I am cautious and careful. I know there are a lot of troubled people out there, so I try to be aware of my surroundings: the time of day, what kind of activity is going on, how well I know the area. Issues & Debate Editor: Kate Coughlin. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM