The Silicone Controversy — When Will Science Prevail?

THE fate of the silicone-gel breast implant may have been foretold in 1988 when a member of the Food and Drug Administration's advisory panel on general and plastic surgical devices suggested that because the benefits of breast implants were unclear, their use should not be allowed if there was any associated risk. 1 Several members of the advisory panel and the FDA have recently displayed similar insensitivity to the demonstrated needs of more than a million women who since 1963 have sought breast implantation for cosmetic or reconstructive purposes. The attitude of the FDA and its actions this past year have . . .