wake and i said. what what's got what has happened to my baby is anything wrong here 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 i'll take owing any more and this cod grow this would be like it to snow. 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 away to get about 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 falutin mite being developed by a local drug company can be grown into her husband like other grown and talent 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 thout workers in the years ahead but the company ignored. the early warning signals in their midst no that's old

women action didn't investigate didn't talk to them didn't go to the hospital didn't look at medical records didn't contact experts there were multiple opportunities for groups hot cup holders asked short tekken nine months after the first deformed baby was born grown and launched the then abide under the german market under the brand name country got going in thousand aggressive sales force whose motto was succeed at any cost continue to promote the drought cardigan they claimed was a safe sedative especially for pregnant women suffering from morning sickness sales zoomed into 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 get up and i said 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 or shut down 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 down drink the darn shot first thing he did was showing the picture of means that this is my son do yours have a kid like this and the people burst into tears and and children can imagine 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 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 any negs 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 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 . took one look and i thought no wonder nobody wanted. and the next i went to see him personally had a bath and dressed and hid and took their toll. well over in favor of taking him oh boy we've raised our family members are 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. 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 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 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 that's not a baby or something to that effect that's not our sister. doubt 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 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 thalidomide 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 magazine is an australian lawyer and former investigative reporter who spent years researching this 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 drug trade 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 was paying huge dividends

that companies owner and executives were making fortunes overnight 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 concentration camps many of whom died after the war mokhtar joined grin and 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 growing and. that i started making money hand over fist. it was on a percentage of profit. from modestly are. 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 would mind 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 tribe to withdraw to take all sorts of course and they did know that they just focused on selling more the drugs and it really wasn't until the press got hold of it. and they knew it was going to go public that they finally backed off and agreed. the mood of the streets of those two summits will. my will for some period this is

their. roles going to say the business with the most is to a couple. with. a lot of slow slow slow slow slow motion i am. sorry. to see that but i know it but you also look at the model and the funniest diplo it's post it's home from the shows just the moon somos the. moon when you must. live for.

dollars. dollars. dollars. dollars dollars what are the. we got carried away here we care the music with us. we are here we were dragged here. by your love going to get rid of those who are not go away we will not die quietly. real the heart of what we do is the truth. on november 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. his find your skin to your future vine don't because it is competent also because you know it as he is feeling the fire and then vanish from purely some of the most at some point so on foot off the connote. one survivor who is a fearless are still under the tree and often bond to care to notice how far far. down from. our boys far you know at least globish i refer to. the one. 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 by week in the summer christmas easter. every quality was like getting to know your sisters again. in new york chances catch you and alvin law's parents decided the best way to get their arm

a son to cope with life was to turn his tones into fingers for hours alvin was given manual task to perform with his feet. now granted having no arms an exact rather simple disability it's a 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 very. very frustrated but i think it was the character that was built by my parents especially by their. 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 weighed 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 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 in the. do something in the nature 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 a back to those periods they complained of better in writing threatened global proceedings i 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 with the hope that all of us have for our children in august one thousand nine hundred sixty two. john f. kennedy awarded the highest civilian honor an american can receive to dr francis kelsey so kill c. really you know. who 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 what was right stick these arms around me a model of a body more all the more out of how many are artificial or not. and why why why would i leave them when there was no good reason not one good reason. to use them for years i told him hey you are doing me any good. and i was like shut up. i was a block of what. we know what we're doing you don't.

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 back 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 life and yet you know you've got a skin infection and you've got to put 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 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 grown and 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. a man who hired nattie 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. use of it was the personal

lawyer for a good one thousand or herrmann verts but in december nine hundred sixty six noyes 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. 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 her until. well 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 a scattergun alvan 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 school they don't have such a thing as an operation on and out again what's integration is a kid in 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 this school finally agreed to take alvan 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. 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. 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 blonde hair and you we're 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 and 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 a 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. shots. if i hadn't paid that price to fill it in my dues 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 yeah i'm sure to hell 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 and i'm not a little martin 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 and a lover and i have short arms and that's it and if people have problems it's

accepting me or are i have problems to interact with me because i have short arms is their problems not mine. blushes and. more snow which he could host to team you'll be set it's. not only shooting against. yet i'm. going to go see myself. included actually showing you a user that i was going to have to be a scheme to show. that you. can

do a split in the south korea just tell them not to be calm cool and come to. the british mr west i am a listener but just. as the media become unhinged in their of trump the president's most ardent critics in the media hang on his every word news cycle after new cycle are all about trying and much of this coverage is negative as journalism lost its purpose for journalists now nothing more than ideological advocates. nobody could see coming that false confession this would be that profile in the

spot placed before the conviction if you look at any interrogation out there what you'll see is threat promise threat promise threat lie a lie a lie the process of interrogation is designed to put people in just that frame of mind to make the most comfortable makes them want to get out and don't take no for an answer don't mix. she said before we. sat on the statement that i would be home by the next day there's a culture on accountability and police officers know that they can engage in misconduct that has nothing to do with all their cry.

to the. total trying to get the ashes out of the french president often money on pool to feel too rich a sense dependence on washington will say this our. membership. to the cease fire ideals reach us today combined with the long term budget with the mask is a surrender to terrorists so the israeli defense minister resigns just a day off the armed groups in gaza and else to cease fire following and deadly escalation of the conflicts. in this counsel patience in iran struggle to get life saving medication.