The Nation : Whiskey Firm Wins Birth Defect Case

A federal jury cleared Jim Beam Brands Co. of negligence for not stating on its whiskey labels that alcohol consumption by pregnant women could cause birth defects in their children. Harold and Candance Thorp of Seattle were seeking about $4 million in damages for lifetime assistance for their son, Michael, 4, whose retardation, physical deformities and other problems were blamed on fetal alcohol syndrome. Mrs. Thorp, 39, testified that she was an alcoholic who drank as much as half a fifth of Jim Beam a day, but she and her husband insisted she would have stopped drinking had the bottles carried a label warning for pregnant women. Witnesses for Beam during the trial said Mrs. Thorp had been warned repeatedly by relatives and friends about the dangers of drinking alcohol when pregnant and that she and other alcoholics would not have heeded a label warning.