Idaho Women Urge Implant Recipients To Join Texas Rally

A group of Idaho women is calling on fellow breast implant recipients to rally in Houston next month and decide for the first time whether they should stay in a federal settlement with implant manufacturers.

“Since 1984, the courts have been clogged with thousands of lawsuits regarding silicone implants and have failed to resolve this massive medical and financial disaster,” Diane Albertson, a vegetable and fruit broker from Idaho Falls, Idaho, said Tuesday. “We, the women, have the plan to resolve and settle the silicone breast implant dilemma now.”

Albertson and her three co-organizers all have had breast implants. They say they want women to decide among themselves - out of the view of their lawyers - whether to remain in a scaled-back settlement worked out in federal court with implant manufacturers.

But the organizers revealed few details about the proposed 1996 Women’s Settlement Conference, scheduled for Jan. 9-12 at the Astrodome. They said only that once in Houston, women will vote on whether staying in the settlement is in their best interest.

“The system has failed us, the cries of suffering are great. The women have turned to a higher court and we have our faith in him to reach a settlement seeking judgment,” said Michelle Machen, a 40-year-old Idaho Falls businesswoman.

Such a vote, however, would not have a binding affect on what individual women decide to do. That inconsistency was never cleared up by the conference organizers.

A vague itinerary presented to reporters listed several conference discussion topics on the breast implant debate, but mentioned no speakers.

“They will be provided with expert information,” said Irene Beard, a 54-year-old arbitrator, also from Idaho Falls.

The group said further details would not be revealed until the conference begins in January.

The group, which has no name, decided only two weeks ago to call the so-called summit. There are no hard figures on how many women will come to Houston.

Some women who have had breast im plants complain of health problems they say are the result of leaking silicone. Others say they have no such problems.

Medical science is divided on the issue, as are juries who have faced hundreds of cases filed against implant manufacturers.