when lawmakers manufacture conservatives instead of public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. the family. lives only the one person. doing all middle of the room sick. girl in. the real news is. the worst drug disaster in history would spread through more than forty six countries and produce up to twenty thousand badly deformed babies worldwide. but historians today single out one birth in one nine hundred sixty one that changed the course of history in hamburg germany linda shelter fillin age twenty

three gave birth to her first child her husband wasn't with it the time and it was quiet. and then lay back and was relaxed and some i mean somebody whispered into my ear is your husband all right and i was here white awake and i said. what what what has happened to my baby is anything wrong you know she said just. let's say. without any emotion oh yeah he's just got short arms and i like a child would have asked possibly i said and aren't a calling anymore and shit this card this would be like it is now. and then i felt like i was beaten to death. a doctor gave the first time mothers some friendly. advice just get another child. like forget about him you know.

i'm a way to get to pot shortly afterwards linda's husband arrived and gave her some bad news he'd been keeping from her six weeks earlier his sister had given birth to a baby with similar deformities it looks alike like our child there must be something that is the same all region the same difficulty the same problem in the background and we'll find it and real search and we won't stop until we fall and. the epidemic of deformed babies began five and a half years earlier on christmas day nine hundred fifty six with the birth of the first victim. in a small town of germany a mother had taken

a new drug called falutin mite being developed by a local drug company can be grown into her husband like other grown in thousand boys had taken home a sample which he gave to his pregnant wife the baby would be the first of six father to my baby's possibly more born chagrin and thousand workers in the years ahead but the company ignored the early warning signals in their midst know that spirit good old women action didn't investigate didn't talk to the mom didn't go to the hospital didn't look the medical records didn't contact experts there were multiple opportunities for groups all to cup holders asked short taken nine months after the first deformed baby was born grown and launched the linn abide on to the german market under the brand name contra gone good in thousand aggressive sales force whose motto was succeed at any cost continue to promote the drug cardigan they claimed was a safe. additive especially for pregnant women suffering from morning sickness

sales zoomed and so little my became a second best selling drug next to aspirin. but linda's shoulder hill and her husband karl hammond were determined to find out what caused their son's short arms months later they were no closer to finding an answer i know my husband had times when he said we don't make it i think we have to get up and i said of giving up. her husband soon contacted a professor of obstetrics dr video kinda lens who had received a few reports of deformed babies my father and professor lance they travel to germany and their road folks bargain and they went from one small village to another and asked are there any children with short legs are shot on and those kids were hidden away at the time in the small villages and he asked in restaurants and bars and the local police office and everybody said no not in our town and then he

showed a picture of me and said this is my bari and can i please repeat my question and then they said well at the end of the road there has been a very sad incident and then he went there and drink the darn shot first thing he did was showing the picture of means that this is my son diaz who have a kid like this and the people burst into tears and and children and in my children's were. called to the day our flight literally. in england was being sold under the brand name distal by the country's largest liquor manufacturer the distillers company as in germany distillers had received reports of deformed babies but had been assured by green and thought that the drug was completely safe. louise mason was one of five hundred thirty three little my babies born in england over a six and a half. your period the weser only learned about the circumstances of her birth by

reading her father's bestselling autobiography i haven't got any arms. and my dad said it was like little flour bugs. you know from my arms and from my lips my dad had a look at me and. he said my god you're not going to let this baby live. and they said yes my mom was only twenty one and she was advised by doctors to put me away and concentrate on having another family. after eleven days in hospital her parents took louise to an institution for handicapped children where she would spend the next eighteen years of her life but louise was fortunate her father had not asked another doctor to end her life because i'm questionable. midwives and doctors

were killing disabled children. in the hospitals and the delivery rooms on a large scale in britain. in germany and if they're probably everywhere else. in canada another armless baby was spared by a poor ukrainian family in a rural cisco. years later alvin law learned how horrified his natural parents were when he was born ultimately it was the perturb grandmother who didn't want to have anything to do with us she said you're not going to bring that devil baby home with you ease he's deformed because of a curse. the armless baby wasn't taken home after doctors warned he would never lead a normal life but after six weeks an elderly couple jack and hilda law who had already

raised their own children volunteered as foster parents and got their first look at . it took one look and i thought no wonder nobody wanted. and the next i went simplicity had a bath and dressed and hid and looked perfectly. well all of them for of taking him oh boy. but. it was a baby with nobody wanted i'm sure we're going to. turn out ok. my life story shifted the moment that sophie and peter my birth father gave me up. that that that is a profound chapter shift in my life because i went to live with the laws my life became this life. back. in

cincinnati ohio and deeply religious roman catholic couple with six children were expecting another normal birth my mother's story is that when i was born they were not at all prepared and the doctor said joy your baby. doesn't have any legs. so she says that she took the baby me and she said well eileen is my four leave clover. i have a sibling who told me that my father cried and that when he came home he handed me to my siblings and everyone got very upset and they said take it away. someone ripped off the blankets and said x. not a baby or something to that effect that's not our sister. that

was what i was taught. as a young child. people. eileen cronan was one of several flitter my babies born in cincinnati where an american drug company richards and merrill had their headquarters like the german drug company merrill promoted the drug as completely safe even during pregnancy like green and merrill had no evidence to back this up merrill applied to the federal drug administration in one nine hundred sixty for approval to brings a little mite onto the american market and was allowed to conduct clinical trials on patients across the country now it wasn't a clinical trial at all what it was was a marketing campaign trumped up to look like a clinical trial michael mann isn't it is an australian lawyer and former investigative reporter who spent years researching these a lot of my disaster what merrill wanted to do was to familiarize doctors with

a drug so that once they got approval they would have doctors all ready to go through with a drug raid to prescribe it like crazy. during this time richardson merrill handed out two and a half million dollars to my pills to thousands of doctors in the united states in canada. in germany going thousand advertising campaign is paying huge dividends the company's owner and executives were making fortunes over night especially heinrich mukhtar going in thousand research director. during the war mokhtar served as a nasty doctor developing vaccines which were tested on jewish prisoners in the book and vowed concentration camps many of whom died after the war mokhtar joined grin and nine years later he invented phillip in my and received a bonus for everything i learned in my pills sold worldwide the drug was such a success for growing them. that they started making money hand over fist and it

was on a percentage of profit. from modestly. to having so much money pouring in he could have bought himself a new mercedes every month one hundred sixty one really he's making twenty times his salary in turnover percentage so he's getting this massive massive bonus he's become a ludicrously rich man on the back of the mod what would a man want that with a history of wartime experimentation strong personality a massive income riding on the selves of them on what would one expect that he would do when confronted with reports of nerve damage and other side effects but it is not surprising to me that there was not a rush to investigate to get to the bottom of it to put warnings on the drug to withdraw to take all sorts of course i did not know that they just focused on selling more the drug and it really was until the press got hold of it. and they knew it was going to go public but they finally backed off and agreed.

what a whole existence to do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president or injury. or something want to. have to go right to be first that's what the four three in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters in the house. thanks to a lot of work a lot of work a lot of time spent by myself very long very. very frustrated but i think it was the character that was built by my parents especially by my parents. that allowed me to not really think that i was all that different. it's not an easy thing

to get dressed but. again it goes back to the basic theory of my life and that is to i have someone look after me or do i look after myself. but more than anything i think it's a mindset you know that ok there's a lot of people in our world that have waived bigger problems than i have so that i have to spend a little extra effort putting my clothes on so what. the moment i started using my tolls and my feet and my legs was the same moment i ceased to have a disability. in the united states there would have been found the lead in my babies like ellen law except for the actions of one woman dr francis kelsey a canadian born doctor and pharmacologist had just joined the federal drug administration when she received an application to bring thalidomide onto the

american market here was a drug that looked like it should be no problem but at the same time there was just a feeling to do something in the leader of the absence of the. cause of concern the application came from richardson merrill one of america's oldest drug companies known years ago for its best selling product vix cough drops merrill poured on the pressure they contacted the f.d.a. fifty times they went behind her back to those periods they complained about her and rushing to threaten the proceedings they pushed and pushed and pushed and she was resolute she was unbelievably tough. but i know that we're all at most indebted to dr kelsey the relationship to the hope that all of us have for our children in august one thousand sixty two. and john f. kennedy awarded the highest civilian honor an american can receive to dr francis

kelsey so kill c. really. for the mother because. i come home from the playground one day my mom says honey good news you're going to get arms dear i mean you just remember a day like that right i thought we were going shopping you know arms or us i don't know. i was very confused they had hooks and they were made of metal and plastic and wood i mean i couldn't take off my shoes i wasn't allowed to use my feet can imagine how weird that was. so this became an interesting life half of my life was being elven law the kid with no arms the other half of my life was this terrible victim of the little guy. i lost my sense of who i was right stick these arms around me on my own body more all the more doesn't have any are artificial or not so why don't why why would i leave them when there was no good reason not one good reason. to use them for years i tol away you are doing me any good.

and i was like shut off. i was our blood that was. if we know what we're doing you doth. most the other miners don't use artificial limbs today but eileen cronan is an exception she wears artificial legs every day to get around. i was born with both legs from the knees down according to my mother i did it down to the legs pretty quickly. but if you have. you know artificial legs a lot of things go wrong you've got to go around conducting your life and yet you know you've got a skin infection and you've got to play your leg on when he couldn't do me i put the leg on i guess that's not always the best thing to do but.

that's what i do. in margin nine hundred sixty seven the owner and eight executives of growth all the german drug company were charged with criminal negligence premeditated bodily harm and manslaughter. among the defendants was heinrich mokhtar the natty doctor who made a fortune inventing fellow to mind. another chop green and executive it was amorous a nasty war criminal known as the devil's. chemist ambrose was convicted of war crimes he committed at auschwitz for which he served four years in prison but after the war the chemist found no shortage of employers including dow chemical j. peter grace and the u.s. army's chemical corps before he became chairman of green and board of directors in one nine hundred seventy one so in the nineteen seventies grown atoll had as the chair of a man convicted of mesmo the slavery. a

man who hired nancy war criminals like ambrose and was owner. verts was a member of the local nattie party in his hometown before the second world war a service for which he was handsomely rewarded by it like you said it was the personal lawyer for a good one thousand or herrmann verts but in december nine hundred sixty six berger resigned suddenly became justice minister in the province where the trial was being held. defense lawyer. ended up with a government responsibility overseeing the conduct of the trial. to stay. away from the trial a secret deal was worked out between granting thousand herrmann birds and the provincial government the secret deal was only revealed when the trial was dramatically stopped after two and a half years. in return for having all the serious criminal charges against its

owner and executives dropped the company agreed to pay the victims lifetime pensions ranging from thirty to one hundred forty dollars a month as well as a small one time payment but in order to collect the money the little mite has had to agree not to launch any further suit against her and so taken as a whole the trial was or is the trial of until. well canada loudly celebrated its one. hundredth birthday and nine hundred sixty seven peace and maybe my family's suffered in silence a few parents had committed suicide others became alcoholics and some were having severe psychiatric drug. that's a little my children were now school age but the question that plagued medical and educational authorities was what type of school should they enter some experts recommended schools for the handicapped while others advise the regular education

system. in new york since the scatman alvin law's parents had run into opposition from the local grade school when they tried to enroll him school says wait he's got no arms you can't go to school you don't have such a thing as integration and our going once integration he's a kid in instability go to school he needs to learn and it's to be educated he can write he can read what else do you need this school finally agreed to take alvin but soon afterwards he ran into a reaction his teachers expected and feared i came home and i was very upset because somebody had called me. but i'd never heard that word before it was never used in this house. it was never used in this neighborhood but i go to school there was no kids someone called me so i had to run home and i was a little freaked out mom called me down and that's when our first remember hearing those words that some people are born with black hair and some people are born with blond hair and you we're born. in england one hundred ninety seven families of thalidomide children are suing distillers the british company which had distributed

the drug distillers made a ridiculously low offer of compensation and warned that the money would be paid out only if all parents agreed to the lifetime the five families refused the offer they were led by david mason a wealthy london art dealer and father of louise now i came under tremendous pressure i received threats on my life i had a police guard for a period of time i had anonymous phone calls i had anonymous letter. you know threats from parents her father as well publicised opposition to the compensation created problems for louise and her care institution up until then i was not one of the crowd but often. i was picked on. louise escaped the hostility of our classmates when her father took her out to participate in publicized events for his campaign i was used as i as opposed to go. david mason's campaign

succeeded in increasing by six times the drug company's original offer to the parents i did pay a heavy pot. pots. if i hadn't paid that price the third of my daughter's wouldn't have got the compensation when they got the compensation so i think it was well. unlike louise mason who rarely saw her mother during childhood yun shelter hill and formed a close bond with his mother from birth and her unwavering support and encouragement were critical in his career decision she never lost hope sure she said cure everything you want to achieve in your life you're going to achieve it i have absolutely no doubt and when i when i turned up with their with the idea that . that i wanted to be a doctor everybody told me you should not it's not a very good idea you cannot do that you will have severe problems she said son do your own thing if that's what you want to do you're going to match yon is now an

emergency room doctor in switzerland i don't consider my condition as a major issue i mean i'm not a for little martin for a start on the first but i'm a man i'm trying to be a good doctor and trying to be a good husband and i'm a father i'm a lover and i have short arms and that's it and if people have problems. accepting me or i have problems to interact with me because i have short arms it's their problem it's not mine. the democrats are not socially liberal they are pro war and so are the republicans and the problem. people have a trial for studies. and that's not acceptable in america today that runs except for against iran. well you know the taj. the walking the walk and you know

you have to do it you have to do but he's really going down the path that hillary clinton clearly was going. to and that. had to get that out. and that to the mind the ad that when the money. did it it. didn't get the money. that is out there it is how much i think after. a lot about how the now there are only starting from that point on because it was a little. sip

an out of them out so out of a mob of people. that was out of my depth. by the amount. that they did. so yeah i'm after. all if you. every. party's video agency ruptly obtains procedure of residents in can do is province in

afghanistan protesting against the constant bombings by coalition and afghan forces or so. this is quite a gathering. a lot of people. world of media. continues to make a stir.