Wakefield tells GMC he was motivated by concern for autistic children

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Wakefield tells GMC he was motivated by concern for autistic children

BMJ 2008;336:738 (5 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39539.438056.DB

Owen Dyer

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text

<http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/336/7647/738> of this article

appear below.

The doctor at the centre of a major public health scare over

vaccinations gave evidence this week before a General Medical Council

panel, where he and two colleagues stand accused of research misconduct.

Wakefield, whose research paper and comments in 1998 linking the

combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism led to a

sharp fall in uptake of the vaccine, told the hearing that he was

motivated by concern for autistic children.

He read out a letter that he had sent in 1997 to -, now

also accused of misconduct by the GMC, in which he wrote: " If these

diseases are found to be linked to the MMR vaccine, these children are

the few unfortunate who have been sacrificed to protect the majority. "

In that letter he defended his involvement with solicitors acting on

behalf of parents seeking compensation from vaccine manufacturers. Six

years after the