one birth in one nine hundred sixty one that changed the course of history in hamburg germany linda shoulder fillin age twenty three gave birth to her first child her husband was with a at 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 not all right and i was here white awake and i said. what what's got 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 cut short arms and i like a child would have asked possibly i said and i'll take lowing any more and shit this cod grow this will be like it is now. and then i felt like i was beaten to death. a doctor gave the first time mother some friendly advice just get

another child. like forget about him you know. i'm a way to get to pot and 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 we'll 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 the small town of germany a mother had taken a new drug called the little mite being developed by a local drug company can be grown into her husband like other grown in tallinn ploys had taken home a sample which he gave to his pregnant wife the baby would be the first of six other than my babies possibly more born chagrin in thousand workers in the years ahead but their company ignored the early warning signals in their midst no that's old women action didn't investigate didn't go to the hospital didn't look at medical records didn't contact experts there were multiple opportunities for groups of 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 got going in thousand aggressive sales force whose motto was succeed at any cost continue to promote the drug cardigan they claimed was

a safe sedative especially for pregnant women suffering from morning sickness sales zoomed and so little my became the second best selling drug next to aspirin. but linda's shoulder helen and her husband carl 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 give 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 are going and they went from one small village to another and asked are there any children with short legs or shot on and those kids were hidden away at the time in the small villages and he asked and 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 has had a kid like this and the people burst into tears and and children thalidomide 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 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 year period louise only learned about the circumstances of her birth by reading her father's bestselling autobiography i haven't got any arms and i hadn't . and my dad said it was like little bugs. in both 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 say 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 on questionable bad 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 army has 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 alice took one look and i thought no wonder nobody wanted. and the next day i went to see him personally had a bath and dressed and hid and looked perfectly. well although in favor of taking him oh boy. but. it was a baby would know what he wanted i'm sure we're going to. turn out ok. my life story shifted the moment that sophie and peter my first 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 births my mother's story is 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 poor lead 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 instead acts 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 follow the my babies born in cincinnati where an american drug company richardson 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 bring sullivan might onto the american market and was allowed to conduct clinical trials on patients across the country now it wasn't a clue 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 the drugs ready to prescribe it like crazy. during this time richards and merrill handed out two and a half million dollar to my pills to thousands of doctors in the united states in canada. in germany grown in thousand advertising campaign was 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 natty doctor developing vaccines which were tested on jewish prisoners in the book and vowed concentration camps many of whom died. after the war milk or join grown in nine years later he invented thalidomide and received a bonus for every thought in my pills sold worldwide the drug was such

a success for grown and. that they started making money hand over fist. 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 but only sixty one really he's making twenty times his salary in turnover percentage so he's getting this massive messy bun as 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 running 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 at gruntal to investigate to get to the bottom of it to put warnings on the tribe to withdraw to take all sorts of course and so i did know that they just focused on selling more the drugs and it really was some time tell the press got hold of it. and they knew it was going to go public but they finally backed off and

agreed. what politicians do. they put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or something want to. have to go right to the press that's what before three of them or can't be good get. interested in the waters about how. the ship. backs geysers financial survival guide. housing bubble all. oh you mean there's a downside to artificially low mortgage rates don't get carried away that's cause

a report. by. the church secret indeed the priests accused of sexually abusing children can get away with it quite literally i like to call this the geographic solution so what the bishop needs to do then he finds out that the priest is is a perpetrator is simply moves him to a different spot were the previous standards not known the highest ranks of the catholic church help conceal the accused priests from the police and justice so listen to that if that's not good as the i intend then i conclude that it used this doubt in. this. case both. on nov twenty eighth one thousand nine hundred sixty one

a day after the thalidomide scandal made headlines in west germany. it was withdrawing the drug from the market even if first latest the spring of nineteen sixty one. had taken the drug off the market that. they would have spared half the boat. meiklejohn glazzard his disability weren't so severe but as a young child niko had trouble adjusting to his short arms. and his fine to your skin to your future vine don't because it is competent also because you know it as he is feeling the find in venice from the journey some of the most at some point saw him fall off the connote. one survivor who is fearless i've found over to and often gone to care to notice how far far. down from manhunt our boys for you know least globish i only furthers. the man.

all men are. born. all. the way. in england louise mason didn't see her parents and three siblings for months at a time. i was let alone most of the time my parents had other children there's no way that they could leave them with my nan it was my crime i was old so they just stopped coming. i went home three weeks. for week week in the summer making a christmas easter. if the policy was not. your brothers sisters again. in your kansas gadgil and al's in law's parents decided the best way to get their

arm less son to cope with life was to turn his toes into fingers for hours alvin was given manual task to perform with the teacher. granted having no arms or the exact rather simple disability very complicated disability and i'd be lying if i didn't say it was a lot of work a lot of work a lot of time spent by myself very long and very afraid very frustrated but i think it was the character that was built by my parents especially by a lifer. 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 is

a lot of people in our world that have wave bigger problems than i am 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 thousands of the little 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 that to do something in the demeter of the absence of. a cause

of concern the application came from richardson merrill one of america's oldest drug companies known years ago for its best selling product vic's cough drops meryl poured on the pressure they contacted the f.d.a. fifty times they went behind her back to those periods they complained of better in writing threatens 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 nine hundred two. and john f. kennedy awarded the highest civilian honor an american can receive to dr francis kelsey so kill sea really you know. with a 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 what was right stick these arms around me on my own the body more all the more doesn't have any arms artificial or not so why why why would i leave 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 up. i was a lot of what. we know what we're doing you don't. most

of the 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. if you have. you know artificial legs a lot of things go wrong you've got to go around conducting life and yet you know you've got a skin infection and you've got to play a 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 grain and sells board of directors in one nine hundred seventy one so in the nineteen seventies quinto had as the chair of a man convicted of mesmo slavery. in a man who hired nancy war criminals like ambrose and was owner. verts was a member of the local nattie party in his home town before the second world war

a service for which he was handsomely rewarded by. use of it was the personal lawyer for a good one thousand or herrmann verts but in december nine hundred sixty six burger 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. 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 suits against her and so taken as

a whole the trial was boris the trial of. canada loudly celebrated its one. 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. 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 as parents had run into opposition from the local grade school when they tried to enroll him school says wait he's got no arms he can't go to the school they don't have such a thing as integration and out of all what's integration is a kid needs to brought to go to school he needs to learn and it's to be educated he

can write he can read what else do you need the school finally agreed to take alvin but soon afterwards he ran into a reaction his teachers expected and feared came home and i was very upset because somebody had called me. i've 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 call 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 who were born. in england one hundred ninety seven families of thalidomide children were 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 like one of the crowd but after. i was picked on louise escape the hostility of our classmates when her father took her out to participate in publicized events for his campaign i was used as a as opposed to go. david mason's campaign succeeded in increasing by six times the drug companies' original offer to the parents i did pay a heavy price. bots. if i hadn't paid that price the third of my daughters 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 young shelter hale 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 she will 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 it 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 thalidomide in for a spot 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 it's

accepting me. i have problems to interact with me because i have short arms it's their problems not mine. leaks floors. please. please.

please when you're on the. present political points of the look that is to close most of the book called this a bug. plain . chose to school students about some new yorkers. just for a little. bit unfortunate ukrainian government destroys that conclave don't know maybe they don't understand this but they destroyed the country they lost not only crimea but they

lost their own people in two regions crania us and russia they really have is toward a cold very deep roots and two cards at least sent to try just to show yourself that you are absolutely separate them differently. from russians and this is absolutely stupid the way this is a way to nowhere. i've been saying the numbers mean something big matter you have over one trillion dollars in debt more than terms like colored orange county did. eighty five percent of global wealth you long for the old rich the point six percent market saw a thirty percent raise one of your home with four hundred to five hundred three per struck a pusher. and this one rose to twenty thousand dollars. china's building two point one billion dollars a i industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm. the

only number you need to remember it was one business show you know ford to miss the one and only. in the stories that shaped the week don't trump take center stage at the u.n. general assembly in new york making one bold claim offer another also ahead. i recall saying that the play list faulted me that some day be on the u.s. supreme court why family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed after an emotionally charged committee hearing.