The cost of normalization: the thalidomide affected and the welfare state

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article analyses how economic support and social benefits for thalidomide-affected children were negotiated and organized by both public and private actors in 1960s Sweden. Accounts from various archives are used to analyse how two different but coexisting understandings of disability – as a medical and a social problem – both influenced and underpinned not only the rehabilitation of The Swedish programme arranged for the affected children, but also the associated economic support. Contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the formation welfare solutions in the 1960s and to the intersecting research fields of the history of medicine and disability history, this article also advances our knowledge of the concept of ‘normalization’ and fosters insights into how the Swedish thalidomide scandal contributed to increased economic support for both the thalidomide affected and other groups of disabled children.