| Abstract: | Millions of dollars are being awarded by injuries and a major company has been forced into bankruptcy because of litigation over silicone breast implants. Yet scientific research hasn't established a link between the implants and disease, notes Marcia Angell, executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. When she began studying the issue, this self-described feminist and liberal Democrat expected to uncover iniquities of big business and the implant manufacturers. Instead, she's written an indictment of the tort system, junk science, and the gullibility of the news media. Attorneys have twisted facts and played on the emotions of juries, with the consent of judges and often to the cheers of the press. Angell worries that it's now become politically correct to bash the scientific method in the name of diversity, multiculturalism, and feminism. |
