Victim's Family Opposes Asbestos Bill

A bill that changes how victims of asbestos are compensated will soon be voted on in the U.S. Senate, but one local family is already saying "no."
The Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act would ban asbestos victims and their families from suing companies that manufactured asbestos. Instead, they would be compensated from a national trust fund.
Supporters of the bill say the system would get money to victims quicker and cut down on the high legal expenses of the current system.
But not everyone believes the new system would be the best way, and they're worried about losing their rights.
It's been less than a year since Ellen Greene's father passed away. "My dad, Frank Beesaw, was a World War Two veteran, a Marine. He was very proud of that. He served in the South Pacific."
"He had family that loved him. everybody loved 'Uncle Frank,'" his daughter said.
He died at the of 79 from asbestos exposure. Three months before his death he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos, something he was exposed to during his many years of working at a paper mill.
"He survived four years at war under hostile fire, and came home to be poisoned by going to work in his own country," Greene said.
Now she and her family are fighting the federal bill that would change how victims of asbestos are compensated. "This bill takes away our right to pursue legal action," action she says is about more than just the money.
"It minimizes my father as an individual, and it allows them to make an anonymous, write an anonymous check to a fund."
"I want to be able to face them on behalf of my father and say this was wrong."
The bill's sponsors say they will bring it to the Senate floor sometime next week, and if it passes it will go to President Bush's desk.