Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
43 F.3d 1311 (9th Cir. 1995)
Daubert (plaintiff) alleged his mother's use of Bendectin during pregnancy caused his birth defects, offering expert testimony asserting the drug could cause such defects, though the experts relied on circumstantial evidence and offered only their own personal assurances of reliability rather than independently verifiable methodology, and the FDA had specifically stated available data did not support an association between Bendectin and birth defects. On remand from the Supreme Court's new admissibility standard, the case returned to the Ninth Circuit for reconsideration.
Whether there is sufficiently compelling proof that a product causes birth defects if the general scientific community, including the FDA, has stated that the product does not cause such defects.