Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Fri, Apr 24 1992 Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 05:26:46 EDT Message-ID: 04-24 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update April 24-26, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Friday morning in USA TODAY: Products; Roadblocks; Neuharth. TODAY'S DEBATE - PRODUCT SAFETY: USA TODAY'S OPINION: So-called wonder drug DES, sold half a century ago, exploded in Washington this week - and should have rocked executive suites across the nation. The message that should be extracted from DES: that corporate leaders who knowingly risk lives to bloat profits should expect tough treatment - including jail. DES did seem wondrous in 1941. Want healthier babies? Just pop this little pill, the ads urged. They didn't mention 1937 and 1950 studies linking the synthetic hormone to deformities and increased miscarriages. It wasn't banned until 1971, when several DES daughters suffered rare cancers. By then, six million women had taken DES. ... Most products are safe; most companies strive to market wares that will build, not erode, consumer confidence. But too many of the 29,000 yearly product-related deaths spring from corporate decisions to de-emphasize safety. ... By far the majority of U.S. companies manage to survive, even profit, without maiming or killing people. It's past time to force the others follow suit. OTHER VIEW: RICHARD A. SAMP, chief counsel at the Washington Legal Foundation: A major obstacle in America's struggle to compete in world markets is a legal system that exposes would-be entrepreneurs to unreason-ably harsh legal sanc-tions. The U.S. econ-omy has suffered greatly from a tort system that causes manufacturers to pull promising products off the market rather than risk multimillion-dollar punitive damage awards to anyone claiming to have been injured by the product. It is difficult to fathom, therefore, why anyone would even consider creating further disincentives to new product development by threatening criminal sanctions against those who bring new products to the market. Why would manufacturers take the economic risks inherent in product development if they knew that an ambitious prosecutor might later begin scouring through their records, looking for a basis to second-guess the marketing decision? Those who call for tougher sanctions against manufacturers of products that later cause an injury are overlooking the simple truth that no product is 100% safe. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON ROADBLOCKS TO CATCH DRUNKEN DRIVERS: NUTLEY, N.J., Scott Miller, 29, police officer: I think they are very effective and a good idea. A slight inconvenience is certainly worth saving someone's life, and roadblocks play a major role in preventing deaths by drunken drivers. Drunken drivers are caught in those checkpoints, so I know they work. UTICA, N.Y., Lisa Rea Edwards, 30, jewelry sales:student: It's a good idea, so long as that's what the lanes are used for and not things such as checking to see whether you have a seat belt on. I was stopped yesterday to see whether my registration and inspection sticker were valid. Police should have better things to do than that. WASHINGTON, D.C., Anne Fox, 27, book buyer: Drunken drivers need to be stopped, and I'm not against the police stopping motorists if they have cause to believe they are intoxicated. But to herd all civilians at roadblocks and give them all tests seems to be an invasion of privacy and a waste of good citizens' time. NORMAL, Ill., Ralph Wingate Jr., 45, pastor: I believe roadblocks, although inconvenient, serve an effective purpose. Even with public campaigns against drinking and driving, alcohol is still responsible for thousands of deaths a year. We must do what is legally necessary to do away with alcohol-related accidents. TUCSON, Ariz., Byron F. Goodloe, 74, retired: It's a very good idea. Here in Tucson, they have run those roadblocks and I think it has had an effect on drunken driving in our city. They tell people when there are going to be checkpoints, but not where they will be. You'd have to be stupid to drink and drive then. TOPIC - NEUHARTH: AL NEUHARTH, founder, USA TODAY: There certainly is such a thing as "cruel and unusual punishment," which our Constitution prohibits. Take the case of California's Robert Alton Harris. But Harris' execution in San Quentin's gas chamber this week was not the crowning cruelty. The inhumanity covered the 13 years during which Harris and the families of the two teen-agers he murdered were kept on a merciless and seemingly endless yo-yo. ... The U.S. Supreme Court was right to blow the whistle and end the shameful game. Hopefully, the immoral and inhuman pattern of endless stays and delays on death row is over. Issues & Debate Editor: Michele Coleman. (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