PIONEER IN BIRTH DEFECTS ACCUSED OF RESEARCH FRAUD.(Capital Region)

Byline: Associated Press

Dr. William McBride, who first alerted the world to the dangers of the drug thalidomide on human fetuses in the 1960s, was found guilty Friday of fraud in research into birth defects.

The New South Wales state Medical Tribunal said it had not yet considered whether the obstetrician and gynecologist was unfit to practice, as alleged by the state Health Department. McBride, 65, could be fined, suspended or stripped of his right to practice.

About 8,000 babies were born worldwide with severe deformities attributed to thalidomide, a sedative administered to pregnant women. A letter by McBride to the British medical journal Lancet …