MMR parents refused legal aid

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 28 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Parents who want to sue MMR vaccine manufacturers for damaging their children have been refused legal aid. The High Court (UK) rejected an application for a judicial review. An earlier decision had denied them public funding, this decision has been reviewed, and rejected again.

Hundreds of parents are involved. They say that the MMR jab damaged their children.

To date, there are not any studies that prove there is a link between the MMR jab and damage to children. In fact, most experts say the vaccine is safe and recommend it.

A year ago the Legal Services Commission (UK) ruled that it would not be right to spend £10 million ($18 million) of public money on the lawsuit. The ruling was upheld in October by an independent body. They said that as there was no proof it was unlikely they would succeed in their claim.

The children of these parents have either autism, bowel cancer, epilepsy or learning difficulties.

The next step for these parents would be the Court of Appeal. Some parents are considering this.

Isabella Thomas, Justice Awareness and Basic Support (UK) said 'We will fight on to the end. This doesn't stop us because we have to have justice. Parents are willing to sell their homes. Our children's lives are at stake. To watch your child in such severe pain is dreadful.'

Some parents are going to carry on trying to sue without legal aid (paying for the legal costs themselves).

A week ago the editor of The Lancet (UK international medical journal) said he would not have published an article in 1998 which linked MMR to autism had he known then about the researcher's conflict of interest.

The researcher claimed the MMR jab was linked to autism. However, the researcher was, at the same time, representing parents who were planning to sue. Therefore, his findings could not be considered as neutral/impartial. His findings were presented to The Lancet, but the Lancet was not told at the time of his conflict of interest and published it.

The study was carried out in 1998 by Dr. Andrew Wakefield. The General Medical Council (UK) is investigating this study now.