Thalidomide
November 12, 2008

RADIO 2GB NEWS COMMENTARY

The thalidomide scandal is one of the standard case studies taught in media courses: fearless journalists take on a huge corporation which is behaving badly towards its child victims. But one of the key journalists in that campaign now has doubts about that victory.

Thalidomide was discovered by accident in 1954 by a small German company called Chemie Grunenthal and it appeared to be a good sedative. It had none of the drawbacks of barbiturates, then the fashionable drug, and it was impossible to take an overdose. Grunenthal marketed the drug all over the world, including promoting it as an anti-morning sickness pill for pregnant women and emphasising its absolute safety – it would harm neither the mother nor in the child in the womb. The latter guarantee turned out to be wrong. Thalidomide crossed the placental barrier and sabotaged the developing limbs of the foetus, so that babies were born without arms or legs.

This was terrible tragedy. But governments declared that since the testing and marketing of the drug had met all the legal requirements of the time, what had happened was not their responsibility. Parents tried to sue the manufacturers, such as the British company Distillers, but got no help from governments.

The Sunday Times in London took up the case. Veteran Australian journalist Phillip Knightley, who was one of the journalists working on the case, has now written his memoirs: A Hack’s Progress. He records the way in which the newspaper campaigned against Distillers.

Eventually Distillers had to back down and pay compensation to the victims. Its own shareholders were appalled by the company’s attitude and there was an anti-Distillers consumer boycott in the United States.

Wesley Mission has a great interest in all of this. Phillip Knightley often refers to Terry Wiles: a person born without arms or legs so that he is just basically a trunk and head. He is also blind in one eye and a little deaf. He also has a very high IQ. He was abandoned by his mother at birth. Later on he was adopted by Leonard and Hazel Wiles.

1981 was the International Year of Disabled Persons and one of Wesley Mission’s contributions to that year was to help bring Terry Wiles to Australia (he was at that time studying for a degree in the United States).

I had some difficulty getting him a visa. The Australian Department of Immigration did not want to have a sick person visiting the country. I had to explain that although Terry Wiles had no arms or legs, was blind in one eye and slightly deaf, he was not actually sick. He was a person with a disability but he was not sick. My colleague the Rev Colin Wood was one of his escorts around Australia.

Phillip Knightly now has some doubts about The Sunday Times campaign because of the harsh spotlight of publicity it put on the victims’ families and the way that the compensation did not bring them happiness. I think Phillip Knightley is too pessimistic. The campaign forced governments to tighten drug testing systems and some compensation was paid. Although the press may not have the power some people claim, it was very useful in helping to draw attention to an appalling scandal.

BROADCAST ON FRIDAY MAY 1 1998 ON RADIO 2GB’S “BRIAN WILSHIRE PROGRAMME” AT 9 PM, AND ON MAY 3 1998 ON “SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE” AT 10.30 PM.