Botched medications, malpractice, the transplant business: when doctors or pharmaceutical companies make mistakes or cross ethical boundaries, this often has serious consequences for patients. One example is thalidomide. Despite inadequate testing, the sleeping pill was marketed from 1957 to 1961, and caused a large number of pregnant women to give birth to children with severe deformities. Less well known, but no less scandalous, is the “Anti-D” affair in the former GDR, where, during 1978 and 1979, thousands of women and many children were infected with hepatitis C through contaminated immunoglobulins. This was not revealed until years later. This book presents 16 such cases – often the stuff of thrillers, but tragic at the same time. People who reach out for help, are instead deceived and harmed. All the more important are courageous and persistent patients and journalists, who have uncovered medical scandals, publicised them and taken the perpetrators to court. Without this, no-one would be learning from the mistakes.