Breast Implants - Cover Sheet SCI Home | SCI Faculty Page | Case Notes | Reference List | Users Notes

Author - John Shepherd - Summer 1998

Case Purpose The breast implant controversy can be considered from a wide variety of viewpoints. medical epidemiology, political science and the law, psychology and sociology of implant use, women's studies and gender identity. It is also a case in which science plays a critical role.

Relation to Texts Marcia Angell's book does a good job of raising those issues in a readable form that is can provide the basis of class discussions.

Description of Case Materials I have tried to draw together here additional materials that could be used to supplement or amplify things discussed in the book. I have gathered most of the primary sources discussed in the Angell book in our paper archive. I also reference here some web material that describes the recent settlment in the class action suit against Dow-Corning. The Daubert-Merrell case also treats an issue that is in Chapter 5 of the Angell book.

Reference List (See the case reference for a complete description of case reference material.)

Angell, Marcia. 1997. Science on Trial: The clash of medical evidence and the law in the breast implant case. W.W. Norton. 0-393-31672-6

Breast Implants on Trial at the PBS web site has lots of materials that are described in more detail on the reference page. PBS-FRONTLINE program, "Breast Implants on Trial" is available in the Mercer Media Center and 26-page verbatim Transcript of the show is on line.

Case Update: . MSNBC - Dow Corning, implant patients reach settlement worth $3.2 billion in July 1998.

MDL926 Breast Implant Litigation Home Page

National Science Panel Report - December 1, 1998