A Healthy Baby Girl
At 25, filmmaker/organizer Judith Helfand was working on a
documentary about the carcinogenic steroid diethylstilbestrol (DES),
which had been prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage from
the late 1940s to the early 1970s. When Judith was diagnosed with
DES-related cancer herself, she withdrew from the film and began to make
her own documentary. The film weaves together Judith's story with the
history of DES, including a powerful indictment of pharmaceutical
companies denial and minimization of risks in order to retain a large
market for the drug, which was prescribed to millions of women even long
after it was known that it did not, in fact, prevent miscarriage. First
released more than 20 years ago, the film remains a potent reminder of
the risks and covert interests that are at play in attempts to improve
reproduction through technologies.
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