ABC Drama Takes on Science and Parents *Autism and Vaccines*

[Guest guest]

ABC Drama Takes on Science and Parents By EDWARD WYATT

LOS ANGELES — A new legal drama making its debut this month on ABC is

stepping into a subject that is the source of heated debate among some

parents — the relationship between autism and childhood vaccines — and

seemingly coming down on the side that has been all but dismissed by

prominent scientific organizations.

The drama, " Eli Stone, " scheduled to be broadcast at 10 p.m. on Jan. 31,

centers on a lawyer who begins having visions that cause him to question his

life's work defending large corporations, including a pharmaceutical company

that makes vaccines.

The title character of " Eli Stone, " adopting the message of his visions to

fight for the little guy, takes his first case: suing his former client on

behalf of the mother of an autistic child who believes a mercury-based

preservative in a vaccine caused her son's autism.

For the last decade some parents and advocates for autistic children have

championed the theory that a mercury-based vaccine preservative called

thimerosal, developed in the late 1920s and used in many childhood vaccines

until about seven years ago, is a primary cause of autism in young children.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/arts/television/23ston.html?pagewanted=print

Donna