While pregnant, children's television host Sherri Finkbine took thalidomide that her husband had purchased over-the-counter in Europe.[43] When she learned that thalidomide was causing fetal deformities she wanted to abort her pregnancy, but the laws of Arizona allowed abortion only if the mother's life was in danger. Finkbine traveled to Sweden to have the abortion. Thalidomide was found to have deformed the fetus.[41]

Oh how we're going backwards.

Frances Oldham Kelsey at the FDA in the United States almost single-handedly, and while under enormous pressure, kept Thalidomide out if the USA for insufficient safety testing.

One reason that Americans are a bit less familiar with this horrific story.

The reason drug ads all say "may cause [list of terrible things]" ultimately traces back to thalidomide.

The system which requires the monitoring and reporting of potentially adverse events, even after a drug has got through trials is called pharmacovigilance. That's what generates the data those risks are based on and it was developed in the wake of the thalidomide disaster to help prevent it from happening again.

Thalidomide was originally created in Nazi Germany as a sedative for healthy, non-pregnant adults. After the war many of the drugs created during the war were boxed up by German pharmaceutical companies. The story of Thalidomide is simply mind-blowing from start to finish.