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.

Theres more....

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

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