It could be that several days away from home, cut off from my usual news fix dealers, caused a build up of outrage withdrawal. Or it could be that my skin isn’t as thick and my political outlook not so jaded as it can be tempting to believe. Whatever the cause, this front page story of Sunday’s New York Times set a bunsen burner in my blood vessels.

It seems that the US Federal Drugs Administration has been intervening in cases where individuals are suing drugs companies over poorly advertised side-effects of drug usage. In effect, they’re arguing, contrary to a 1997 Supreme Court ruling, that FDA approval not only sets minimum standards but also maximum standards for drugs.

In the Pennsylvania ruling, issued Tuesday, the appeals court threw out a lawsuit filed by Barbara E. Horn, who said her husband had died because of defects in the design and manufacture of his heart pump. The Bush administration argued that federal law barred such claims because the device had been produced according to federal specifications. In its briefs, the administration conceded that “the views stated here differ from the views that the government advanced in 1997,” in the United States Supreme Court.

I’ve always been deeply skeptical of the litigious culture it is easy to perceive in the United States. Like teachers, diligent doctors and nurses have the right to work free of the fear of regularly defending their reputations in court. But with a privatised healthcare system and regular occurrences of medical malpractice on the part of practitioners, health care corporations and drug manufacturers, citizens need some means of reparation, profit-focussed health care providers need to be reminded that safety comes first.

If the federal government is committed to a provider/consumer model of healthcare, is it really appropriate for them to then retract those consumers’ rights? And is it any surprise that this sort of case should come to light shortly after John Edwards—a medical malpractice trial lawyer—was announced as John Kerry’s running mate?

Anecdotally, while driving from Grand Rapids to Chicago, Chicago to Des Moines and Des Moines back to Grand Rapids we spotted two Bush/Cheney bumper stickers, and somewhere around a dozen Kerry/Edwards stickers. A little cheer while reading such reports.

Slacktivist linked to this excellent Washington Monthly article about John Edwards.