The biggest defendant in the breast implant litigation, Dow corning Corp., is contributing at least $7 million for the research. Dow purports to have no influence on the setup or conduct of the study.

But David H. Smith, director of the Poynter Center of the Study of Ethics at Indiana University, said in an interview last night that it is not unheard-of for a corporation like Dow to sponsor research which is intimately linked to its products. Smith cited the tobacco industry's funding of research on smoking.

More and more corporations are paying for scientific studies "as federal monies dry up," but objectivity does not have to be sacrificed, Smith said.

"There's always the risk that the agenda of the funder will dictate the results reached... I don't think that's a good reason to reject all corporate funding. But it is a reason to insist on a public record of all research," he said.

Dr. William Terry, vice president at Brigham and Women's overseeing research, said last month that the hospital would look at its ethical guidelines to see if they needed to be broadened to cover issues of consulting.

"It is important that there be no shred of suggestion that industry is in any way controlling" the study, he said.

This article was written using material from the Associated Press.