Medical Malpractice???

So every time I watch TV, during the commercials, there are groups of lawyers advertising some sort of, what they believe to be, medical malpractice.  They say things like, "If you ever took "this" and then developed "this" you could be entitled to a large settlement.  Call us now!"  Or they say, "If you ever had surgery for "this" and they used "this" and you developed "this" you could be entitled to a large settlement" Call us now!"

My big problem with this type of class action lawsuit is that I personally believe that it should be illegal to sue someone or a corporation for these types of "medical malpractices".  Honestly, I don't believe that it's medical malpractice at all.  In most cases, the commercials that I see are lawyers suing over things that were considered safe maybe 20, 30, or even 40 years ago that now in todays society are considered unsafe.  For example, 40 years ago asbestos was considered safe because at the time they didn't have the same technology as we do today.  Today we now know that asbestos can lead to cancer, but back then we didn't know.  Same thing with lead based paint.  Lead based paint was considered safe back in the 60's, but today we now know that it's unsafe and can also lead to cancer if inhaled.  In fact, lead based paint was so popular that most houses build before 1970 have lead based paint in them.  Back in the 60's, we didn't know the effects that lead based paint had on humans as we know today.

This is where I have a major problem with lawyers trying to sue corporations and people over things that are today considered unsafe, but 40 or 50 years ago were considered safe.  It would be different if back then we knew all the things that we know today about some things like asbestos and lead, but the truth is that we didn't know back then what we now know today.  When I see a commercial for a lawyer that says, "If you were exposed to asbestos in the 60's and you have recently developed cancer, you may be entitled to a large settlement.  Call us now."  It just doesn't make sense to me that we sue someone or a corporation or whatever over something that is now considered unsafe, yet back then was considered safe.  Like I said, technology back then was limited to what we knew at the time and what we considered safe.  There might be some things that we use today that we consider safe that in 20 years might be considered unsafe but right now, using the technology that we have, we consider them to be safe.  Does that make sense?

Personally I believe that this type of lawsuit should be illegal simply because of the types of things that they are suing over.  We should not be allowed to sue corporations or people on things that are considered unsafe today that we thought were perfectly safe 20+ years ago.  It's wrong.  These people and corporations tried to keep there people safe with what they knew about these products back then even though it turns out that modern day technology says other wise.  I don't believe that these corporations intentionally exposed their workers or the public to something that they knew would cause cancer 20+ years down the line.  That's foolish.  It would be different if we knew back then that these products would have caused cancer, but the fact is that we didn't.

12 years ago I had hernia surgery.  They used a mesh fabric to put me back together.  If 20 years from now they find out that the mesh fabric they used is considered unsafe, I'm not going to sue the doctor or the hospital for putting in the wrong mesh simply because at the time the mesh that they used was considered safe.  I just think that it's wrong for lawyers to try and make a buck this way.  It's wrong, but the fact is that lawyers all across this great country of ours are suing people and corporations on things that are considered unsafe today that 20+ years ago were considered safe.  That's wrong.

The FDA thoroughly inspects all the medicines that the approve before allowing them to be put on the market using todays high standards.  This doesn't mean that 20 years from now they might find out that something they put out is considered unsafe.  Medicines get pulled all the time.  Why?  Because the FDA finds out that they were wrong about a certain medicine.  How do they know?  Because modern day technology tells them.  Technology grows at an extremely fast pace.  So something considered safe 5 years ago might be pulled because they find out something about that medicine today that they didn't know know 5 years ago.  So does that mean we should sue the FDA for putting this medicine out 5 years ago?  Absolutely not.  The FDA doesn't put out stuff that they know will harm the public.  

As technology grows we have a better understanding of what  products we should and shouldn't use.  This doesn't mean that we may be wrong about some things today as in years to come we might find out that we were actually were wrong.  For us to sue over things that we didn't know in years past is just plain wrong and shouldn't be allowed in todays society.  We are ruining people's lives and shutting down or severely hurting corporations that only were doing what they believed was in the best interest of their employees or the public back then.  We may have been wrong about some things back then, but it's even more wrong to try and make a buck from these people and corporations over things that were considered safe many years ago.