what a joke, totally pathetic he has this on his site ! !

[Guest guest]

If silicone does not cause illness, why do the lawsuits continue?

Many breast implants are the salt-water filled kind, not the silicone gel filled kind. But the shell of the implant is made of silicone, and the people who are running the anti-implant campaign are are opposed to any and all implants, and so therefore they are also trying to make the salt-water implants look bad. So the following applies to all implants, not just silicone. Juries have a difficult job, especially when the issues involve scientific evidence. The jurors are not likely to have any scientific background or other basis for evaluating scientific facts and studies. Every effort is made in court to quickly educate the jurors, but it is asking a great deal to expect someone to absorb in a few weeks what takes most people many years to grasp. The result of this is often a decision based upon feelings, prejudice and sympathy, rather than upon the evidence.

Traditional American philosophy includes two noteworthy ideals: the first one is that innocence should be assumed until guilt has been proven beyond any doubt; the second is a sort of Robin-Hood mentality of stealing from the apparently rich to help out the less fortunate. In court, if these two ideals are in conflict, Robin Hood often wins out, and proof, truth, and facts are ignored. When huge sums of money are at stake, a clever lawyer can convince jurors to ignore the facts, and make decisions based upon feeling sorry for someone. We are all too aware of recent cases of that sort, where the jury decision is contrary to the facts. In fact, some recent news articles have focused on the increasing prevalence of jury members intentionally ignoring the facts in order to push their own goals!

Here is an actual transcript of an astonishing nationally-televised interview, with two members of a jury that had just awarded a woman and her lawyer multiple millions of dollars from a silicone manufacturer, for illnesses being blamed on implants. This award was made despite the absence of evidence, and completely ignored the scientific Mayo Clinic Study showing no connection between silicone and illness:

Interviewer: "Are you satisfied that silicone caused Mrs X's disease?"

Jurer 2: "No, I don't think so."

Juror 1: "Huh-uh, no."

Juror 2: "No."

Interviewer: "Why not?"

Juror 1: "Evidence."

Juror 2: "I don't think there's enough studies. I think they're probably still studying them right now - to figure out if they really cause disease."

Interviewer: "Was there any evidence that the implants hurt Mrs ____? Did the evidence prove that the implants were actually harmful?"

Juror 1: "No, there isn't enough evidence for that."

Juror 2: "No."

Interviewer: "Was there enough evidence to prove that the implants were safe?"

Juror 1: "No, nope."

Juror 2: "No."

Interviewer: "Did [the Mayo Clinic Studies] figure much in the deliberations?"

Juror 1: "Huh-uh, that didn't really impress me much. Huh-uh."

Juror 2: "No, I don't think we went over that during the deliberations either. No."

Interviewer: "So why then did [the jury] award Mrs _____ such a large sum of money?"

Juror 2: "She had a couple of years to retire; we added that up, that went into the 5 million."

Juror 1: "She's having to have help with her housework. She can no longer cook; her husband is having to do a lot of the cooking. They used to travel a lot and go on vacations, and they can't do that any more."

Juror 2: "Their future medical bills. All that was added up together."

Juror 1: "I mean it's just, you know, whole lives have been changed, both of them."

How shameful! Believe it or not, this is an actual word-for-word transcript of the televised interview! These jurors openly admitted that the award was made only because the woman could use the financial assistance, even though there was no evidence to support the decision! Most people hearing this interview are struck by the complete disconnection between the evidence and the decision reached. Also striking is the jurors' blithe ignorance of the fact that they were publically admitting to the entire world that their decision did not follow courtroom rules of evidence. This case will probably be reversed on appeal, but it does illustrate how far our legal system has been damaged.

Apparently the jurors have failed to understand that feeling sorry for someone is not sufficient reason to make a court decision that is contrary to the facts. This illogical verdict appears to have been based upon the desire to do something generous for someone, using someone else's money, rather than based upon any evidence of cause of harm. Each person can draw his/her own conclusions.

Because very large amounts of money are involved, there will be more of this sort of thing going on, regardless of the facts.

Breast augmentation: Why do the lawsuits continue if silicone does not cause illness?

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