50 YEARS ON, DRUG FIRM SORRY FOR BIRTH DEFECTS

GERMAN DRUG FIRM MAKES
1st APOLOGY FOR THALIDOMIDE

www.sltrib.com - The German manufacturer of a notorious drug that caused thousands of babies to be born with shortened arms and legs, or no limbs at all, issued its first ever apology Friday - 50 years after pulling the drug off the market. Gruenenthal Group’s chief executive said the company wanted to apologize to mothers who took the drug during the 1950s and 1960s and to their children who suffered congenital birth defects as a result. “We ask for forgiveness that for nearly 50 years we didn’t find a way of reaching out to you from human being to human being,” Harald Stock said. “We ask that you regard our long silence as a sign of the shock that your fate caused in us.” 
Stock spoke in the west German city of Stolberg, where the company is based, during the unveiling of a bronze statue symbolizing a child born without limbs because of thalidomide. The statue is called “the sick child” - a name German victims group object to since all the victims are now adults. In German, the name also implies cure. The drug is a powerful sedative and was sold under the brand name Contergan in Germany.

It was given to pregnant women mostly to combat morning sickness, but led to a wave of birth defects in Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan. Thalidomide was yanked from the market in 1961 and was also found to cause defects in the eyes, ears, heart, genitals and internal organs of developing babies. Thalidomide was never approved for use in pregnant women in the United States. Freddie Astbury, of Liverpool, England, was born without arms or legs after his mother took thalidomide. 
The 52-year-old said the apology was years long overdue. “It’s a disgrace that it’s taken them 50 years to apologize,” said Astbury, of the Thalidomide U.K. agency, an advocacy group for survivors. “I’m gobsmacked (astounded),” he said. “For years, (Gruenenthal) have insisted they never did anything wrong and refused to talk to us.” Astbury said the drug maker should apologize not just to the people affected, but to their families. He also said the company should offer compensation. “It’s time to put their money where their mouth is,” he said. “For me to drive costs about 50,000 pounds ($79,000) for a car with all the adaptations,” he said. “A lot of us depend on specialist care and that runs into the millions.”

The pharmaceutical company “Chemie Gruenenthal”, the manufacturer of the drug Thalidomide, has issued its first apology in over 50 years to the thousands of babies born with defects as a result of the drug's use. However, Thalidomide survivors rebuffed the apology by the German company, saying it was an “insulting” response to the thousands born disabled as a result of its use. The drug, which was prescribed by doctors as harmless sleeping drug to pregnant women, caused the miscarriage and birth of thousands of crippled children and with malformations of the eyes and ears, genitals, heart, kidneys and digestive tract. The world needs more conscious doctors, nurses and health workers who performs their professional medical activities with high spiritual consciousness.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Conscious doctor keeps absolute distance from any situation that risks the respect for life and the birth chance of a human foetus. Thus, he is opposed to the abortionists, who do not respect life, which only God can create. Conscious doctor first explore all the possibilities of natural medicine before choosing any kind of surgery to patients. ... The Conscious doctor always recommends that people seek refuge in God, to see that all the bodily and mental sufferings are reactions from our wrong doings in this and past lives; that they are little bells to wake us up to the reality that we should not live away from His Will. Above all material suffering there exists a benign invitation to the spiritual world, for bodily suffering, whilst physically painful, really is not the most important things. It is most important to awaken spiritual consciousness in each and every person, for we are soul, mind and body in that order of importance.

Śrīla Bhakti Aloka Paramadvaiti Mahārāja :
"Conscious Doctors"
The Vedic Wisdom Online
http://www.vedic-wisdom.org/
http://bhaktipedia.org/espanol/index.php?n=sabidurias_vedicas.medicos_concientes

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/