Skip to main content

Proceeding contribution from Martin Caton (Labour) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 14 January 2010. It occurred during Ministerial statement on Thalidomide Survivors.


Thalidomide Survivors

May I, too, give my warm welcome to the Minister's statement? I am chair of the all-party group on thalidomide, and the positive response that he has given to the campaign that we have supported, which has been led by the thalidomiders themselves, is excellent. I pay tribute to him, because he has provided a new pair of eyes, an open mind and, most important, a willingness to engage with thalidomiders that was not there before he took over this portfolio—he deserves enormous credit. He has rightly paid tribute, as I do, to the Thalidomide Trust and its national advisory council; Nick Dobrik and Guy Tweedy, in particular, have been working on this for an enormously long time. They have fought a very robust campaign, as many of us who have met them know, but they have done so out of care for their fellow thalidomiders. I very much welcome the Minister's expression of regret and sympathy. It accepts that what we had back in 1958 was not a lack of scientific knowledge; it was a failure of regulation. Does he agree that not only will that expression of regret provide comfort to the surviving thalidomiders, but it constitutes a tribute to their parents, who began this campaign many decades ago, taking on Distillers and its apologists?


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
503 c863 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Disability Finance Drugs Government assistance Pilot schemes Victims Thalidomide Thalidomide Trust
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk