Malpractice.

Australia's Prime Minister has issued an apology for the tragedy of Thalidomide. Sold as a sedative, the drug was produced by German pharmaceutical firm Grünethal without adequate testing. Distributed from 1958 in many countries without marketing controls, it was discovered in 1961 to be the cause of an "epidemic" of severely deformed infants--such as missing or underdeveloped arms & legs. The Thalidomide babies were born to mothers who in the early stages of pregnancy had taken the drug on the advice of their physicians. Thousands of afflicted infants in West Germany and hundreds in Scandinavia, the U.S. & the U.K. were born before the removal of the drug from the market in 1961. Australia has 146 registered victims; there may be more.