Doctors who endorsed Medtronic product got millions. Reading the linked article reveals that some doctors may have received kickbacks -- that's not entirely clear at this point. More troubling, however, is the implication that allowing corporations to conduct their own safety testing is not, and may never have been, a wise procedure:

“Can we accept industry-sponsored studies as the basis to go full bore into the use of a product?” said Dr. Dan M. Spengler of Vanderbilt University. “I’m suggesting probably not, based on our experience here.”

Federal and state government agencies do not have the resources to really keep an eye on these corporations, so the government has relied on them to "self-police." But what about the temptation to buy the results of studies that are supposed to ensure reasonable product safety? Again, the suggestion here is that corporate businesses, which are notoriously amoral -- they're in it for the bucks, and they don't take prisoners -- cannot be trusted to regulate themselves.

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