Thalidomide's Return

Three decades after maiming thousands of children, the drug is increasingly useful -- but perilous as ever

Bundled in a stark white hospital blanket, Rafael looks like any other month- old baby. But when his mother, Luciene das Dores, unwraps the snug cover, the sight is shocking: Rafael has no arms or legs. "I got very upset and started to cry when I first saw him," says Das Dores, 23, a part-time cleaning woman who lives in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. "When I saw him with only a head and a torso, I was devastated. I wanted to kill myself." She could not help feeling guilty: unaware that she might hurt her baby, she had taken the powerful sedative...

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