About the Futile Dream of an Entirely Riskless and Fully Effective Remedy: Thalidomide

Hardly any other artificially made medicine has ever had such a dangerous and unexpected potential as thalidomide. The medicine, which started its life as a harmless sleep-inducing substance, caused neurological and teratogenic damage, and, at the moment is a promising candidate for the fight against leprosy, cancer, and AIDS. The present study focuses on the early German history. It takes the bioactivity of that remedy as a chemical property and supports the claim that if a substance is biochemically active, adverse effects can hardly be avoided. The ethical role of an ontological underdetermination of chemicals is discussed, and an analysis of particular responsibilities is presented along the lines of modern principlism in biomedical ethics.