The thalidomide scandal was “one of many darkest chapters” within the nation’s historical past, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stated
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has provided a nationwide apology to victims to thalidomide, the morning illness drug that prompted beginning defects in round 100,000 infants worldwide. The apology marks the primary time that the Australian authorities has acknowledged a job within the scandal.
“To the survivors – we apologize for the ache thalidomide has inflicted on each considered one of you each day. We’re sorry. We’re extra sorry than we are able to say,” Albanese addressed a gaggle of survivors in parliament on Wednesday.
“This apology takes in one of many darkest chapters in Australia’s medical historical past,” he acknowledged.
Developed by German drugmaker Grunenthal, thalidomide was marketed between 1957 and 1961 as a treatment for morning illness throughout being pregnant and as a non-addictive sleeping pill. Shortly after it was delivered to market, thalidomide was discovered to trigger beginning defects together with shortened or lacking limbs, whereas different pregnancies had been terminated prematurely by the drug, and a few kids uncovered to it within the womb died earlier than reaching puberty.
Estimates from the Thalidomide Belief recommend round 100,000 thalidomide infants had been born globally. It’s unclear what number of had been affected in Australia, however a 2019 report by the senate in Canberra discovered that 20% of the nation’s instances might have been averted if the federal government had acted sooner to take the drug out of circulation. The federal government by no means admitted legal responsibility, however provided survivors one-time funds of as much as AU$500,000 ($332,000) and annual compensation of as much as AU$60,000 in 2019.
Comparable redress schemes had been carried out in Canada in 1991 and the UK in 2010. Grunethal acknowledges its function within the scandal, however has by no means admitted authorized legal responsibility. A number of Grunethal officers had been charged with negligent murder within the late Nineteen Sixties, however the agency settled out of courtroom and agreed to contribute to a charitable basis for victims.
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