MALFORMATIONS MULTIPLYING
In the chapter "Ten Thousand Little Monsters", Slaughter of the Innocent brought full, indisputable and undisputed evidence that animal experimentation not only caused the worldwide Thalidomide tragedy, but was directly responsible for the magnitude of that tragedy.In its February 23, 1962 issue, when the first warning signs were appearing on the world horizon, Time Magazine had reported that Thalidomide had been marketed "after three years of animal tests."
On August 1, 1958, the German manufacturer, Chemie Grünenthal, had sent a letter to 40,000 German doctors describing its Contergan (Thalidomide) as the best tranquilizer for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as it damaged neither mother nor child.
In October 1961 the British licensee, Distillers Company, after extensive animal tests of its own, had launched Thalidomide on the United Kingdom market, under the name Distaval, with the following assurance:
"Distaval can be given with complete safety to pregnant women and nursing mothers without adverse effect on mother or child."
In December 1970, the longest criminal trial in Germany's judicial history ended with the acquittal of Chemie Grünenthal: a long line of international medical experts had testified that animal tests could never be conclusive for human beings, thus relieving Grünenthal of any responsibility for the tragedy: the required animal tests had been conscientiously undertaken.
When the vivisectionists fail once more, do they blush, pack up their easy-learner kits and slink off into the night? Of course not. They just clamor for more money to repair the damage they have done.
The Thalidomide case should have ruled out further animal tests once and for all. Against all logic, with nothing but the profit motive in mind and in complete disregard of the consumers' safety, the animal tests were multiplied - with easily predictable, catastrophic results.
Primodos, Amenorone-forte, Duogynon and Debendox gave a repeat performance of the Thalidomide tragedy all over Europe.
In 1978, after more and more stories and pictures of malformed newborns, whose mother had been treated with Duogynon during pregnancy, appeared in West Germany, its manufacturer, Schering of Berlin, pulled a neat trick on the consumers: it changed the drug's name to Cumorit. The Health authorities voiced no objection.
In the USA, among the drugs held responsible for the yearly increase of malformed births, there is one called Bendectin - the American trade name for Britain's Debendox.
EXPERT REVEALS: COMMON DRUG CAUSING DEFORMED BABIES - ran a headline on October 9, 1979 of the National Enquirer, often decried as a muckraking scandal-sheet for revealing certain disturbing truths that Americans never find in the N.Y. Times, the Washington Post or other authoritative and "respectable" papers committed to the protection of special interests. The article began:
In a monstrous scandal that could be far larger than the Thalidomide horror, untold thousands of babies are being born with hideous birth defects - after their mothers took an anti-nausea drug during early pregnancy. Unbelievably, the drug is still being prescribed - for nearly half a million American women each year! Despite clear expert evidence that the drug is a vicious, body-twisting crippler, its manufacturer denied the danger and has tried to cover up the terrifying truth, charge outraged experts. Even more shockingly, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received numerous warnings from doctors about the dangers but has done absolutely nothing to stop its use. The medication - which is called Bendectin - is the most commonly prescribed anti-morning-sickness drug for pregnant women in America. 'This is one of the most shocking disasters in medical history,' declared Dr. Neil Solomon, former professor at the prestigious Johns Hopkins Medical School...
And on January 20, 1980, Britain's highly respected Observer carried a front-page headline which read:
NEW THALIDOMIDE-STYLE DRUG FEAR
It concerned Debendox, "under suspicion" of being responsible for the increase of birth defects, but what was particularly interesting in the article in relation to this present report was that those "suspicions" had been existing for a score of years.
By the time the manufacturer, Merrell, was taken to court, he had secured "scientific findings" by "medical experts" who challenged the allegations that the product was teratogenic (malformation causing).
The Observer published documents "written in the belief that they were confidential and would not be disclosed." They revealed that "a professional relationship" had been established, among others, between Merrell and Professor Richard Srnithells, FRCP, professor of pediatrics at Leeds University, and that after this professor had completed a "study" which cleared Merrell of any responsibility, he suggested in a letter marked "Confidential" that the Merrell company might consider endowing a research fellowship in his department.
This letter included such passages as "I should appreciate any gesture Merrell felt inclined to make but I imagine that if we are able to give Debendox a clean bill of health with regard to teratogenesis this would be of substantial help."
No great prophetic powers are required to assume that Merrell, in its pharmaceutical wisdom, knew how to take the hint.
On the American scene of the Debendox-Bendectin tragedy meanwhile, the National Enquirer provided the following bits of information:
Incredibly, despite the dangers of Bendectin cited by experts, Merrell has attached a label on bottles of the drugs it sends to pharrnacies, saying that it is safe. Only near the end of the label does Merrell issue a mild caution that Bendectin 'should be used only when clearly needed.'