say. without any emotion oh yeah he's just got short arms and i like a child would have asked possibly i said and on take anymore and shit this card 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 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 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 ploys had taken home a sample which he gave to his pregnant wife the baby would be the first of six for the my babies possibly more born chagrin and thousand workers in the years ahead but the company ignored the early warning signals in their midst no that's very 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 cope holds us to short none of which i can. nine months after the first deformed baby was born grown and launched the little died on to the german market under the brand name contra 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 hill 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 shot on 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 showed first thing he did was showing the picture of means that this is my son do yourselves 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 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 the weser only learned about the circumstances of her birth by reading her father's bestselling autobiography i haven't got any arms and legs and my dad said it was like a little flower buds. you know from my arms and from i let 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 room was 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 alan and i took one look and i thought no wonder nobody wanted. and the next i went simpers they had a bath and dressed and hid and looked further till. well although 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 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 coupled 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 up the blankets instead that's 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 a little mite 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 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 already to go through with the drug really 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 good one thousand advertising campaign is paying huge dividends the company's owner and executives were making fortunes overnight especially heinrich 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 fill it in mind and received a bonus for every thought 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 our. 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 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 riding on the selves of with 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 and so i did know that they just focused on selling 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. year span different fantastic all the episodes drill down into twenty nineteen predictions. bring ten years of the kaiser report. nobody could see coming that false confessions would be that in this book we wish

the problem with a virtue if you had any interrogations out there what you'll see is a trip promise threat promise threat lie a lie a lie the process of interrogation is designed to put people in just that frame of mind make the most comfortable make them want to get out and don't take no for an answer only accept or deny. she said therefore 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 solving their crime. seemed wrong. just don't hold. me to that yet to stamp out these days the conflict that's occurred and indeed from an equals betrayal.

when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. 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. is fine to continue if

you combine don't because it is complicated also because you know it as he is feeling the find in venice from peter only some of the. morning when cops saw him fall off the conneaut. and fearless are still under the tree and off and on too close to notice how far far. down from. our voice far you know at least globish. all know. who are. 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 one week in the summer christmas easter. every quality was by getting to know your brothers and sisters again. in new york chances catch you 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. grounded having no ours it is a rather simple disability it's very complicated disability. 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 my hair. 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 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. it looked like it should be no problem but at the same time there was just a feeling to do something in the theater 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 vick's 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 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 were always most indebted to dr kelsey the relationship in 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 sea really you know it starts from. the modern beginning. 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 body more all the more doesn't have any arms are special 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 may start doing me any good. and i was like shut up. i was a blunt it was you know 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. 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 march 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 and natty 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 sells board of

directors in one thousand nine hundred nineteen seventies quinto had as the chair of a man convicted of mesmo 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. away from the trial a secret deal was worked out between granting thousand owner 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 this 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 a laureus the trial of until. well canada loudly celebrated its one hundredth birthday and nine hundred sixty seven these are maybe my family's suffered inside. 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 in needs to go 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 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. i had 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 called me so i had to run home and i was a little freaked out you know call 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 publicized 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 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. mind the drug companies original offer to the parents i did pay a heavy pot. shots. if i hadn't paid that price with a little 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 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 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 jaan 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 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 are i have problems to interact with me because i have short arms it's their problem it's not mine. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race is on off and spearing dramatic development only basically i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful

very critical time to sit down and. everything on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. hello my name's peter and i've been living in russia now for about seven years and this is a film about just some of the crazy things i've got in the time. when you're older. only because it is then there's the what you described as. ghastly. as this is not here if.

you. thank. you thief. make you love my mother.

so give me some weekends he has enough to for you. because you're in the stuff i want to be a. few more. people many people for whom it's been my will to kill for will start to feel. desperate for a single purpose. they have a super. star training very young. eight months of intensive school. raps. and they save lives.

for a baby boy rescued from a block of flats in the rush. to spending. four hour was. a stopping railway station not a vehicle in germany to be considered as related by local authorities but the students left several people were good. in the next few weeks and these will have an important decision to pay. its bills for support for our plans in a new us speech. way.