Updated

The U.S. has more thalidomide survivors than the government officially acknowledges, according to reports highlighting a decades-old medical crisis. In the 1950s and 1960s, doctors administered the drug thalidomide to pregnant patients without informed consent and without FDA approval, resulting in birth defects in their children. Now, as adults, those children are pressing for formal recognition of their status as thalidomide survivors and seeking acknowledgment of the harm caused by the undisclosed use of the medication.