Doctor Defends His Controversial Research into Children's Vaccine

LONDON — The doctor who sparked a global health scare by questioning the safety of a widely used vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella vigorously defended his reputation as he took to the stand for the first time Thursday at a disciplinary hearing into his conduct.

Andrew Wakefield — a British-born physician who now lives in Austin, Texas — stood by his decade-old research suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine and bowel disease and autism.

Wakefield is accused of abusing his position as a doctor and of not getting the necessary approval from his British hospital's ethics committee for his research on children. Two former colleagues, Simon Murch and John Walker-Smith, are also accused of professional misconduct.

The trio, who deny the charges, could be barred from practicing medicine in the United Kingdom if found guilty by the five-person General Medical Council panel hearing the case. The prosecution presented its case to the panel last year.

Wakefield's suggestions of a link between the MMR vaccine, bowel disease and autism were published in the highly respected medical journal, The Lancet, in February 1998. The report led to a massive decline in the use of the vaccine around the world. American health officials continue to maintain that vaccines don't cause autism, despite a recent federal settlement that concluded that vaccines contributed to symptoms of the disorder in a 9-year-old Georgia girl.

The British panel does not intend to prove or disprove Wakefield's controversial research, but is investigating whether Wakefield and his colleagues acted in the best interests of the children they studied.

Asked by his attorney if he had acted improperly, Wakefield told the panel, "absolutely not."

The day started with a massive show of support for the 51-year-old father of four, who now runs the Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin.

Dozens of placard-waving parents who believe that the MMR vaccine caused autism in their children demonstrated outside the General Medical Council's offices in central London. Some carried signs: "We're with Wakefield" and "Stop the Witch Hunt." Others simply held photographs of their autistic children.

When Wakefield arrived just after 9 a.m., flanked by his wife, the crowd began blowing whistles and screaming words of support.

"This is a massive cover-up by the government and we want it exposed," said Joan Campbell, the mother of an autistic son who flew down from Glasgow, Scotland, to attend the hearing. "I came to support the good doctor and I will continue to do so."

As a doctor in Britain, Wakefield is alleged to have carried out his research on 12 children with bowel disorders in the 1990s without getting proper approval.

Wakefield also is said to have taken blood from a group of children at his son's birthday party in March 1999, paying those children who gave blood $10 each for doing so, and then later made a joke of the incident during a speech in California.

His attorney, Kieran Coonan, made a point of highlighting Wakefield's long and respectable career, during which he helped write at least 136 papers in scientific journals in addition to the article at the center of the controversy.

Wakefield's research career began in 1985 and soon after he began studying the link between measles and Crohn's disease, a chronic, inflammatory bowel disease.

He published a paper in The Lancet in 1995 suggesting a link between measles and Crohn's disease, which received widespread media attention. He said research conducted in other parts of the world had found a similar connection.

After the 1995 paper was published, he heard from several parents whose children had developed autism. One, referred to as "Mrs. 2," told him in May 1995 that after her child had the MMR vaccine, he began suffering "terrible bowel problems" and eventually developed autism.

Wakefield said that it was the first time a parent had told him about concerns related to an autistic child.

He said he knew very little at the time about autism, adding "we weren't even taught about it in medical school."

Wakefield said the woman's story "made a great deal of sense" to him as a gastroenterologist because of a well-known link between the gut and the brain.

He advised the woman to ask her doctor for a referral to his colleague, Walker-Smith.

"I think if I had not given her that advice, if I had not responded in the way I did, then this panel would have every reason to have me before it," he said.

Wakefield resigned from the Royal Free Hospital in 2001 before moving to Austin to develop a center to treat children with autism and other developmental disorders.

According to a report in the Austin Business Journal on Monday, the investigation hasn't negatively impacted the Thoughtful House Center for Children. The center for children with developmental disorders has seen demand for its services rise significantly over the past year.

Although he now practices in America, Wakefield has returned to Britain for the hearing in order to defend his professional reputation.

The case is expected to continue for several more months and a judgment may not come until later this year or early 2009.