The Thalidomide Catastrophe: How it happened, who was responsible and why the search for justice continues after more than six decades

by Martin Johnson

Heedless national governments inflicted further cruelties on the distraught

families, abandoning them and their afflicted children to the mercies of a powerful corporation.

All the mainstream press went along with the notion the tragedy was an act of God rather than sloppy

science multiplied by greed.

The Thalidomide Catastrophe takes the story deeper and further. It credibly estimates the

total number of deaths and demonstrates how many thousands of victims, both those who survived and those who died, could

have been spared very late in the day if Chemie Grünenthal had taken any notice of the early al...

The Thalidomide

Catastrophe carries conviction by its scientific rigor, its energy in tracking evidence, its restraint in reaching conclusions

and the cool clarity of t...

Fifty years after the deaths and sufferings the thalidomide

tragedy is marked not by the final celebration of justice, but the odour of corruption and cover up.

The nightmare of thalidomide would best be ended by the appointment of five international jurists

charged not with criminal adjudication but with truth. The infants at Chailey and their companions deserve nothing less.

And from that point to the present, the company has never shouldered any real responsibility – criminal or

otherwise – for causing the massive devastation that the drug inflicted.

we have found no proof whatsoever in the course of our research since 2008 that thalidomide originated in the

Nazi period, our investigation into the drug’s ‘Nazi connections’ has nevertheless proved fruitful.

we have been able, for the first time, to produce estimates of its true extent and of the ways in which earlier withdrawal of

the drug would have reduced the number of victims.

a range of primary documents that have never been used before in relation to the history of thalidomide.

In terms of direct loss of life and long-term devastation,

however, the thalidomide disaster exceeds all of these events, with the exception of the case of asbestos.

women who gave birth to a thalidomide baby ranged from a dockside prostitute to a viscountess.

the estimated number of babies who did not survive to live birth amounted to more than

150,264, with the total number of babies affected (including all who were born alive) upwards of 175,000.

sent alarm bells ringing.