Michael Thorp, born in Seattle in 1984, suffers mental retardation, malformed limbs and other handicaps, all aspects of a condition known as fetal alcohol syndrome. Now a court is wrestling with the question of who, if anyone, is responsible for his condition.
Michael's mother, Candance Thorp, admits she drank up to half of a fifth of Jim Beam bourbon every day while she was pregnant. But in a trial that began last week in Seattle, she blames the Chicago distiller for her child's injuries because the bottles did not carry labels warning that alcohol could harm unborn children. The distiller claims...