Benedictin was prescribed to more than thirty-five million American women from its introduction in 1956 until 1983, when it was withdrawn from the market. The drug's manufacturer, Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, a major U.S. pharmaceutical firm, joined a list of other companies whose product liabilities would result in precedent-setting litigation. Before it was over, the Benedictin litigation would involve 2,000 claimants over a fifteen-year period. Michael D. Green offers a comprehensive overview of the Benedictin case and highlights many of the key issues in mass toxic substances litigation, comparing individual and collective forms of litigation, and illustrating the misunderstandings between scientists and lawyers about the role of science in providing evidence for the legal system.
Price: $39.95
Pages: 384
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press
Publication Date:
01 January 1998
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780812216455
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
LAW / Malpractice, Gynaecology and obstetrics, MEDICAL / Gynecology & Obstetrics
"Important reading for obstetrician-gynecologists and family physicians who provide obstetrical services."
Michael D. Green is Professor of Law at the University of Iowa.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1-A Birth Defect Child Is Born
Chapter 2-Locating Bendectin within the Mass Toxic Landscape
Chapter 3-The Science of Determining Toxic Causation
Chapter 4-The Food and Drug Administration
Chapter 5-The Wm. S. Merrell Company
Chapter 6-A Mother's Quest
Chapter 7-The Mekdeci Case
Chapter 8-The Unraveling of Mekdeci
Chapter 9-The Proliferation of Bendectin Litigation
Chapter 10-Litigating a Multidistrict Case
Chapter 11-The Withdrawal of Bendectin
Chapter 12-Forging a Mass Toxic Substances Trial
Chapter 13-The Settlement and Unsettlement of MDL-486
Chapter 14-The MDL-486 Trial
Chapter 15-Aggregative Procedure in Mass Toxic Substances Litigation
Chapter 16-The Third Phase of Bendectin Litigation: Oxendine, Richardson, and the Individual Trials
Chapter 17-The Legacy of Bendectin for Toxic Causation Law
Chapter 18-The Lessons and Non-Lessons of Bendectin Litigation
Selected Bibliography
Index
