Statement from Dr. Andrew Wakefield Regarding GMC Hearing Sanctions

http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/04/s...sanctions.html

April 05, 2010
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.