Danger: implants

The superheated debate over breast implants awakened a sleeping giant of an issue clouding "medical devices"--the government's clumsy nomenclature for any medical product that is not a drug, from breast implants and artificial hips to X-ray machines and surgical thread. Some 130 categories of high-risk devices are in use with little or no proof of safety, reliability or effectiveness. All appeared before 1976, the year that the Food and Drug Administration got the authority to regulate such products. Under activist chief David Kessler and with added clout from a 1990 law, the FDA plans to scrutinize the entire 130-item list. Five will get special attention starting early next year: saline-filled breast implants, inflatable penile implants, testicular implants, heart-bypass pumps and cranial stimulators. U.S. News has looked at all five devices, using FDA data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. In-depth computer analysis suggested that penile implants deserve closer examination. Why is clear from the following report.     

Mortality in Mexico. Some considerations on rural-urban differentials

"In this essay, certain aspects related to rural-urban mortality differentials in Mexico are analyzed....[These include] the availability, advantages, and limitations of different sources of information and the disparity of levels and tendencies according to particular indicators of acceptable reliability, especially those deriving from recent demographic surveys conducted in Mexico. The findings confirm an inverse ratio between size of settlement and mortality, and reveal a widening of the differentials over time." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

可保利益

<正> 保险并不意味着也不应该向任何人无条件地提供保险,以免在损失发生之时,使有些被保险人从赔偿中获取一种纯净的利益。在实践中,对此进行控制的相当可靠的方式,便是采取"可保利益"原则。一、坚持可保利益原则的目的在判例和成文立法中,贯穿于可保利益原则全部发展途程的两个主要目的,曾引起立法     

美国的商标和商标法

<正> 一、商标的性质商标的主要功能是识别商标所属产品的来源。它也有一种广告功能和保证功能——这后一功能,是保护产品的来源和产品在广告上被宣传的质量。在人们的心目中,商标的能力有强有弱。家用电器用具制造商——阳光公司,是注册商标"阳光"的所有权人。该公司对阳光家具公司提起诉讼。法院下令禁止被告把"阳光"这