Drug Testing on the Poor

This one-eyed child was born in early August at the Kasturba Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children in Chennai, India. The baby girl, diagnosed with a rare chromosomal disorder known as cyclopia, was born with a single eye in the center of her forehead, no nose and her brain fused into a single hemisphere.
Photo: Scott Carney

You know, just when I thought I have seen everything, I stumble upon this incredible story and horrifying at the same time.

The horrifying thing is that this one-eyed baby appears to have been born not by natural causes (rare chromosomal disorder), but because of possible exposure to a new drug being tested by numerous American pharmaceutical companies as a possible cancer treatment drug. The drug in question is called CYCLOPAMINE. The connection to this drug came out from a internal hospital report that mentioned the drug by name as a possible cause for the deformity.