Medicine: The Thalidomide Disaster

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Abortion Journey. New York City reported the first U.S. death of a thalidomide-deformed baby. Psychiatrist Richard H. Hoffmann imported the pills by mail from a German drug house for one patient, then gave it to others. One of these became pregnant. Her baby, born a fortnight ago, was severely malformed and lived only 41 minutes.

Pills bought in Europe by her husband alarmed the Arizona housewife whose daily misgivings made headlines across the U.S. last week. A Phoenix judge dismissed Mrs. Sherri Finkbine's plea that the Arizona law permit an abortion in her case. Resolved to have an abortion, she prepared to go overseas for it.

On the Spot. The anguish of parents put European governments on the spot. In West Germany, health departments were making plans to train 2,500 or more deformed children and to fit them with artificial limbs. In Britain, Socialist Lady Summerskill asked the government to consider legalizing abortions. It refused. In Belgium, a young couple and their doctor were in jail, awaiting trial on a charge that they murdered a malformed thalidomide baby with an overdose of another sleep-inducing drug.

One result of the thalidomide crisis has been to increase demands for better supervision of drugs. Though the World Health Organization has no power to impose any rules, it would like to serve as a clearinghouse for information. In several countries there were moves to require, by law, that manufacturers do more testing in animals before they offer a new drug for the market. For any drug that might be taken by a pregnant woman, there will be emphasis on testing in pregnant animals of several species.

Cambridge University's Dr. D. H. M. Woollam offered this universal prescription: "In the present state of our knowledge, the only safe course is to bar absolutely the use of new drugs by women who are believed to be in the early stage of pregnancy."