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Supreme Court weighs whether parents can sue vaccine makers
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| Parent(s) |
Issue
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| Contributor | Homegrown Democrat |
| Last Edited | Homegrown Democrat Oct 12, 2010 10:47pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | David G. Savage |
| Media | Newspaper - Los Angeles Times |
| News Date | Thursday, October 14, 2010 04:45:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The Supreme Court struggled Tuesday to decide whether Congress left parents the option to sue a drug maker for selling a vaccine with potentially dangerous side effects.
Vaccines can protect millions of children from deadly diseases and serious illness, but they can cause injury or illness to a small fraction of those who are inoculated.
Congress set up a fund in 1986 to compensate parents of children who were injured by a vaccine. But many parents have been dissatisfied with the fund.
The justices are considering the case of a Pittsburgh woman who suffered seizures as a baby shortly after she was given a third dose of a vaccine for diptheria, tetanus and pertussis. Hannah Bruesewitz, now 19, suffered developmental disabilities, and her parents sought compensation in 1995.
A month before that, the "vaccine court" set up by Congress dropped "residual seizures" from the list of injuries that called for compensation. Frustrated, the family sued, but their claims were dismissed by federal judges who said the law barred such suits against vaccine makers. |
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