it's relaxed and some i mean somebody whispered into my ear is your husband all right i was here white awake 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 shit this car and 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 a way to get to. 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 origin 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 a small town of germany a mother had taken a new drug called for little 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 will be the first of six

father to my babies possibly more born chagrin in thousand workers in the years ahead but the company ignored the early warning signals in their midst know that spirit sells when the 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 grew up holds us to short none of that second. nine months after the first deformed baby was born grown and launched the lin abide on to the german market under the brand name country gun 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 a little my became a 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 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 through 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 look i'm a. new factory the distillers company has 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 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 a little flower buds. 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 mum 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. about 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 . took one look no wonder nobody wanted. and the next i went to see him personally had a bath and dressed and hid and took their toll. while all of the in favor 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. 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 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 leaf 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 x. 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 follow the 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 the 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 and canada. in germany going 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 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. i started making money hand over fist. it was all a percentage of profit. from modestly are. having so much money pouring in he could have bought himself a new messiah does every month but i'm sixty one really he's making twenty times

his salary in terms of a 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 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 i rushed 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 something more the drug 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.

with a suitable to. my little course on the syria. rolls going to say i support a business with the mustard so if. this is new for. you i am. a cynic i know it but you also look at the model your body has to follow its most of its own from all the shows just the flu and souls that. you were born you must.

fix or it didn't happen. this is the phrase that has become a mantra for many people but as more and more people get involved in visualizing the world around them always the story we tell ourselves about ourselves is changing. blushes and thanks to the cica total more than the bleach he cut the host for senor he said it's not that it's and it's a shame since that always shifting against. the utopia because it also included. a little bit i was going to have.

to show. for. you families. in the us but then the south korea is just tell them not to be some corn summed up . the money of what you call british mr west i am all sure but. 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 at first latest the spring of nineteen sixty one they had taken the drug off the market then they would have spent half the basis. of on

glasses disabilities weren't so severe but as a young child niko had trouble adjusting to his short arms. it is fine to 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 venice from the journey some of the most at some point so on foot off the connote. one stiver who is the fearless i've found over to and often down to care to notice how far far. down from our hunts to our voice far you know least globish i only furthers. the one. form of full. moon. 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 making a christmas easter. every quality was by getting to know your sisters again. in new york kansas cacho and alvin law's parents decided the best way to get their arm the son to cope with life was to turn his tones into fingers for hours alvin was given manual task to perform with his feet. grab it having no ours it is a rather simple disability very complicated disability.

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's a lot of people in our world that have wave bigger problems than i 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 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 a back to those periods they complained of better 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 always 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 president john f. kennedy awarded the highest civilian honor an american can receive to dr francis kelsey so kill c. really if you know it's. the mother of the damage. 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 they had hawks 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 a 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 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 a blot 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 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 yeah 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 grown and tell exactly that was amorous anatomy 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 granito had as the chair of a man convicted of mesmo slavery was. 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 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 a 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 or is the trial of until. well canada loudly celebrated its one. hundred 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'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 what's integration is a kid needs to grow up 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 that i go to school

there was no kids 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 blonde hair and you 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 institutions up until then i was not 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. signs the drug companies original offering to the parents i did pay a heavy pot. shots. if i hadn't paid that price the philip in 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 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'll 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 gonna match eon 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 and 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 shown downs and that's it and if people have problems. accepting me. i have problems to interact with me because i have short arms it's their problem it's not mine.

it's a little silly little. by little for certain this is they're. broken there's a part of this that's where the most historical. is new. but a slow slow slow slow slow motion i am. going to see that i know it but. look at the motor on the footage to blow its top move

choose the fluid so almost. when you. leave. i don't think the democrats very much moved in the go shape with the republicans or president so i think people are going to have to acknowledge that the united states over the next couple years is going to be consumed even more so by or internal our total bickering in affairs and. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy glue from day shouldn't let it be an arms race. spearing dramatic development only mostly i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk.

subscribe to rep people also get. just twelve euros fifty a month. the week's biggest stories from r.t. international may's ministerial meltdown the british prime minister battles to save . interim government in a week of resignations recriminations and second referendum call alaskan peace to consider the national interest and give it their backing their withdrawal agreements represents a huge and damaging failure deal that is already dead in the water also in the headlines for most this week newly declassified documents revealed the cia experimented with the so-called truth serum on prisoners who resisted other

enhanced interrogation.