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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 5 page paper describes the thalidomide tragedy as well as the mechanism by which the drug causes damage. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVThalid.rtf
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tragedy as well as the mechanism by which the drug causes damage. The Thalidomide Disaster The greatest tragedy of the thalidomide babies who were born in the 1950s
is that the whole situation may have been preventable. Thalidomide was developed by a West German pharmaceutical company, Chemie Grnenthal (Bethune, 2001). Grnenthal was trying to develop a
sedative for humans to take the place of the dangerous barbiturates then commonly used, and which desperate people took to end their lives (Bethune, 2001). All the pharmaceutical companies
in the world knew that there was big money to be made if a non-toxic sedative could be found; and Grnenthal was overjoyed when one of its researchers "stumbled upon
thalidomide in 1954 while trying to create a new antibiotic" (Bethune, 2001, p. 37). The company began testing its new drug on animals, and found that while it didnt
act as a sedative, it also did not kill the animals-even at the highest doses. Thus, Grnenthal kept on working with thalidomide and the next step was to test
the drug on humans. Now comes the amazing part: in order to test their new drug, Grnenthal "simply sent out free samples to physicians" (Bethune, 2001, p. 37).
Many of the physicians who prescribed it reported back that not only did it give a deep, "almost hypnotic" sleep to the patients who used it, it also alleviated morning
sickness in pregnant women (Bethune, 2001, p. 37). Because of these findings, but with no further testing, Grnenthal applied for and was given permission "to begin selling it without
prescription on October 1, 1957" (Bethune, 2001, p. 37). The drug became hugely popular in Europe, and all seemed well, until in 1961, "a lawyer named Karl Schulte-Hillen went
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