Dr. Andy Wakefield Wakefield GMC
On Wednesday April 7th, General Medical
Council (GMC) lawyers will demand that I and likely two other doctors involved
in the MMR-autism case should be erased from the UK’s medical register, removing
our license to practice medicine. Doctors’ regulators have found the three of us
- Professor John Walker-Smith, Professor Simon Murch and me - guilty of
undertaking research on children with autism without approval from an ethics
committee.
We can prove, with extensive documentary evidence, that this conclusion is
false.
Let me make it absolutely clear that, at its heart, the GMC hearing has been
about the protection of MMR vaccination policy. The case has been driven by an
agenda to crush dissent that in my opinion serves the government and the
pharmaceutical industry — not the welfare of children. It’s important to note
that there has never been a complaint against any of the doctors by any parent
involved in this case — only universal parental support and gratitude.
My colleagues, Professors Walker-Smith and Murch, are outstanding pediatricians
and pediatric gastroenterologists. They have led the field of pediatric
gastroenterology for decades, devoting their lives to caring for sick children.
Our only “crime” in this matter has been to listen to the concerns of parents,
act according to the demands of our professional training, and provide
appropriate care to this neglected population of children. It is unthinkable
that at the end of an unimpeachable career, Professor Walker-Smith would even
consider unethical experimentation on children under his care.
In the course of our work, we discovered and treated a new intestinal disease
syndrome in children with autism, alleviating suffering in affected children
around the world. This should be cause for celebration. Instead, we have been
vilified in the press, and demonized by a wasteful PR campaign by the Department
of Health. The aim of this negative publicity was to discredit my criticism of
vaccine safety research.
Sadly, my colleagues have suffered severe collateral damage in this effort to
prevent valid scientific enquiry. They should be exonerated, and left alone with
their reputations intact, in the certain knowledge that they have done only what
is right.
The loss of my own medical license is, unfortunately, the cost of doing
business. Although I do not take this loss lightly, the suffering - so much of
it unnecessary - that I have seen among those affected by this devastating
disease makes the professional consequences for me a small price to pay by
comparison.
As long as a question mark remains over vaccine safety; as long as a
safety-first vaccine policy is subordinate to profit and self-interest; as long
as the benefits of vaccines are threatened by those who have compromised public
confidence by denial of vaccine damage, and as long as these children need help;
I will continue my work.