Posted on 01/29/2004 5:04:30 AM PST by kattracks
Manchester, N.H. (CNSNews.com) - Sen. John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat who finished fourth in Tuesday's presidential primary in New Hampshire, refused to answer allegations that he had used "junk science" in part to win hugely lucrative legal judgments or settlements against the medical profession.
The outcome of those cases, many of them dealing with the debatable cause of cerebral palsy in infants, made Edwards a rich man, allowing him to self-finance a 1998 run for the U.S. Senate from North Carolina and position himself as a presidential candidate in 2004.
As CNSNews.com reported Jan. 20, Edwards won record jury verdicts and settlements by arguing that in certain cases, obstetricians and the hospitals where they practiced had been responsible for botching the treatment of women in labor and the delivery of their babies, resulting in the infants sustaining either brain damage or developing cerebral palsy.
The CNSNews.com report pointed to medical studies dating back to at least the 1980s which asserted that doctors could do very little to cause cerebral palsy during the birthing process and to two new studies in 2003 which further undermined the scientific premise of the high profile court cases won by Edwards.
Dr. Murray Goldstein, a neurologist and the medical director of the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Educational Foundation, told CNSNews.com that brain damage resulting from the techniques used in a delivery were possible, but "really unusual."
"The overwhelming majority of children that are born with developmental brain damage, the [obstetrician/gynecologist] could not have done anything about it, could not have, not at this stage of what we know," Goldstein said.
Eldon L. Boisseau of the Kansas-based firm Turner and Boisseau, specializing in defending doctors' insurance companies from medical malpractice lawsuits, said he believed "junk science" was being used by lawyers in cases similar to those Edwards argued during his legal career.
And while obstetricians were generally blameless in cerebral palsy cases according to Boisseau, he said he believed there would be more legal judgments and settlements in the future similar to those Edwards had won during his legal career.
Some of Edwards' critics had told CNSNews.com that as a trial lawyer, Edwards relied more on his verbal skills than the latest scientific evidence to persuade juries that the doctors' mistakes had been instrumental in causing the cerebral palsy in the infants.
But after speaking to his supporters Tuesday night following his fourth place finish in New Hampshire, Edwards did not want to address the allegations. His campaign spokesmen had also refused to comment on the issue prior to CNSNews.com's publication of its Jan. 20 story.
"How do you respond to allegations that trial lawyers like yourself made a lot of money off cerebral palsy cases using 'junk science,' when scientific studies show that cerebral palsy isn't caused by botched deliveries?" CNSNews.com asked Edwards Tuesday night.
Edwards did not say a word, despite two more attempts to elicit a response. His aides intervened and moved the senator along.
E-mail a news tip to Marc Morano.
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It is the rats and their shyster money men who are the healthcare problem. The money wasted on insurance fraud by these stinking rodents in $3000 suits could pay for healthcare for all who currently do no possess coverage.
Absolutely not, just destroy the criminal enterprise known as Trial Lawyer, Inc.
Massive, massive tort reform is needed to clean up the "stench from the bench."
Then why does that campaign still owe five million dollars?
Really? He is a greedy kleptomaniac! Stealing millions of dollars at every opportunity seems to be his forte!
An Edwards Presidency would make the thievery and bribery of the Clintons look like Amateur Hour.
You cannot be serious.
BINGO!
Forget tort reform bump.
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