A few good links on Edwards's Cerebral Palsy cases:

[AP]

Hopefully, Edwards will be the VP nominee, and this issue will come up. Well, here is the best, most intelligently argued defense of John Edwards I've found on the issue of whether the allegations in that NYT article are total crap.

The various sources cited by Huber did not conclude that hypoxia at birth does not cause cerebral palsy.  What they concluded and declared was that hypoxia at birth is not the only thing that causes cerebral palsy.  That is a different thing entirely. 

...

I will repeat my statement.  The state of medical thought on the causation issue has seen a lot of development over the last 20-30 years.  I believe that the position in favor of a causal connection was not by any means "junk science" during the 1980s and 1990s, and even today there is still widespread controversy on the topic.  A conclusion that birth defects are caused by maternal use of Bendectin (as an example) can accurately be called "junk science", because (1) there is no reliable medical evidence demonstrating the connection and (2) the medical profession as a whole does not accept the connection as having been scientifically established.  By contrast, the belief that there are causal connections between perinatal asphyxia and cerebral palsy has been accepted by the medical profession in the past and continues to be accepted today, though in a more narrow range of cases.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0110436/2004/02/14.html


Nordberg and I have not addressed the question of whether the weight of scientific evidence supported those causation theories. By contrast, Bernstein poses the question based on an extreme assumption:

"I agree with Wally Olson that trial lawyers should not be obligated under ethics rules to pursue claims based on admissible evidence that the attorney knows to be "junk science.""

This is the classic "straw man" argument. Bernstein proceeds from the premise that Edwards was a showman and a charlatan, that he knew as a lawyer that the theories he espoused were fallacious, and that he knowingly advanced them despite that knowledge. Olson likewise suggests (putting it very bluntly) that Edwards knew that he was slinging bullshit in the courtroom, but knowingly chose to do so, despite the harm it caused to the obstetricians he sued, because it made him wealthy.

Olson's criticism is, as I have suggested, a political rather than a legal or medical argument, since that is his job. 

In fact, the theory that perinatal hypoxia or perinatal "asphyxia" can cause cerebral palsy has been an hotly debated issue in the fields of obstetrics and maternal-fetal medicine for the last 25 years. It was not until a year ago that some authoritative declarations were made in this area. Even those, however, are still far from definitive on this issue.

...

As a defense attorney who has been defending doctors for the last two decades, I can state quite definitively that during that entire time there has been no perception that the association between perinatal oxygen deprivation in the neonate and neurological deficits in later life is "junk science" as that term is generally used. It has instead been an actively debated and litigated issue of causation. "Junk science" refers to a principle of causation which is unproven and not generally accepted in the relevant field of practice. Up to 2003 for many forms of CP, and even now for others, that label would not properly apply to the causal arguments in question.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0110436/2004/02/01.html#a533

[chimpymustgo]

1. Thanks, AP. If people read this, a lot of bs will be cleared up.

BTW - do you know where JRE is today? I recently listened to his speech in Washington with Patty Murray, and he talked about growing up in the segregated South. I hope Edwards' voice is heard today (Brown v. Board anniversary).

[JI7]

2. i think he is supposed to be in ohio, but not sure

i know kerry is going to be with dean in oregon today. i read somewhere edwards will be in ohio today but i could be wrong.

[spooky3]

3. Great job, AP. I'm afraid that those who want to malign JRE won't bother

to read any of this or the links, but for the majority who are interested in facts and information rather than slurs, this will be very helpful!