Still No Justice For Thalidomide Victims In Spain?

Survivors of the drug Thalidomide in Spain have been demanding justice for decades now but while their counterparts in the United Kingdom have already received compensation, they are still waiting for recognition and compensation.

An estimated 20,000 babies all over the world were born with deformities as a result of the pregnancy drug Thalidomide. It was only in 1961 when Gruenenthal, the German pharmaceutical firm that manufactured the drug, withdrew it from the market.

Some victims, like Analia Munoz, was born in 1983, long after the ill-effects of the drug was established. Munoz has short legs and arms, a cleft palate and born without hip joints and ankles. Her mother Ana Maria, who is now in her mid-sixties, recalled how she was given a pregnancy drug in the hospital although she could not prove it was Thalidomide.

"My husband and I both have to carry Analia up and down the stairs and help her in the bathroom. We have no real life outside the home," Ana Marie said. While Analia said in an interview that came out in BBC, "I would like to work. I have studied to be a secretary and I once had an interview, but the office wasn't practical for my needs. I am frightened about how I am going to get along when my parents aren't around and I am alone."

Politics Base said that Gruenenthal's wrote a letter to its sister company in Madrid sometime in 1961 accepting the importance of warning Spanish doctors about the hazards of the drug called Softenon, which was the Thalidomide's industrial name in Spain. The company told BBC that while it regrets the tragedy caused by the drug, the firm has stopped its distribution in Spain effective November 1961 and it was already marketed by other companies.

The deformities caused by Thalidomide is considered by the pharmaceutical industry as its darkest period in history, according to Science Museum. The drug was developed in the 1950s and was marketed as a sleeping pill and anticonvulsive drug with mild effects and safe even for pregnant women. However, the malformed limbs resulting from the drug was only disclosed in 1962.