When given to women of child-bearing age, the use of contraceptives is required in the United States, but in other countries administration of the drug has led to the birth of more children with
phocomelia.
The son she gave birth to, whom she named Kim Byung Chul, had a congenital birth defect,
phocomelia, which left him without a pelvis or legs.
It caused
phocomelia (or "seal limbs", a serious malformation of the limbs) in an estimated ten thousand newborns.
The 51-year-old was born with
phocomelia - a birth defect that causes stunted limbs, in his case arms - after his actress mother took Thalidomide while pregnant.
This kind of reaction is nothing new for 47-year-old artist Alison - born without arms and shortened legs as a result of a congenital condition called
phocomelia - in a life that began with rejection, was peppered with abuse but blossomed into breaking boundaries and achieving what people said she never would - most notably parenthood.
The unlucky victim of a rare medical condition called
Phocomelia, his birth was quite naturally a terrible shock to his parents.
Reports began appearing from Europe of the growing numbers of babies born with flipper-like limbs, with digits sprouting directly from hips and shoulders -- a condition called
phocomelia.
In the 1960s, following the epidemic of
phocomelia from thalidomide, regulations were developed to protect pregnant women from exposure to teratogenic drugs--drugs that induce either structural or functional abnormalities (Hilts 2003).
