Letters to the Editor

Cardiac arrest at the FDA

The photograph on your Tuesday front page headlined “Hillary health care” shows Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, in Jerusalem holding a CardioPump — a device used to assist in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This device was developed in the United States, and data supporting its effectiveness were published in the pre-eminent American medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine. Nonetheless, the CardioPump is illegal here because the Food and Drug Administration has refused to approve it. In the mid-1990s, in fact, the FDA halted tests of the device because unconscious heart attack victims had not “consented” to its use.

The CardioPump is essentially a sophisticated suction cup, enabling emergency medical personnel to administer CPR more effectively. It poses no risk, but there is some dispute over how definitive the supporting data are. If the device were approved here, hospitals, physicians and ambulance systems could make their own decisions on whether to use it. Because of the FDA, none of them has that option.

Unless, that is, they’re in Jerusalem or in any of the other major foreign cities where the CardioPump is in use and where an American senator can travel to pose for a photo-op with the device.

SAM KAZMAN

General counsel

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Washington

On illegals, take a Californian cue

Thumbs up to Tom Knott’s Thursday column, “Will state hit brakes on illegals’ driver’s licenses?” Metro). I live in California, ground zero for illegal aliens, but unlike Maryland, we are still denying illegals the privilege of having driver’s licenses. It costs Californians $10 billion a year to educate, medicate and incarcerate illegal aliens. California is in debt for $38 billion. Mr. Knott writes, “All this is symptomatic of a nation that has lost its way, of politicians who lack the spine to enforce our laws, of the loony left who traffic in their smug superiority.”

It’s time to admit that the Bush administration is deeply committed to Wall Street’s interests. U.S. merchants want taxpayer-subsidized foreign labor in order to make profits beyond belief. These merchants put profit before country, and their lackeys, the corrupt politicians, see to it that illegal immigration continues, and they see to it that illegals enjoy all the privileges of legal U.S. residents. Sadly, the next Democrat in the White House and Democrats in Congress will do the same as President Bush and his administration. The right and the left have been bought by the U.S. merchants, and Wall Street is running this country, no matter what party is in power.

Story Continues →