Two British mothers lost a legal fight on Wednesday to stop their young daughters being given the triple measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine after a judge ruled that worries about the vaccine's risk were "junk science."

The appeal court judge upheld a previous landmark ruling in June that the girls should be vaccinated, against the wishes of their mothers, because the benefits outweighed any risks.

Rejecting the mothers' appeal, Lord Justice Stephen Sedley launched a scathing attack on the medical evidence presented by the mothers to argue against vaccination.

"Not to mince words, the court...was presented with junk science," he said. "While you can never prove a negative, there was strong scientific evidence that the risks of not immunising children were real and in many instances serious - tetanus, meningitis C, mumps, measles and rubella presenting what was characterised as a plausible risk of severe illness and death," Sedley said.

He added that scientific evidence suggested effectiveness of the vaccines was high and that the "known side-effects were rare and not life threatening."

The ruling followed the wishes of the girls' fathers, who wanted their daughters vaccinated. The fathers are not married to the mothers, but have "parental responsibility" orders giving them a say in the welfare of their children.

The MMR jab has been clouded in controversy since a study by the British gastroenterologist, Dr Andrew Wakefield, published in The Lancet in 1998, raised fears about the safety of the triple vaccine and about a link to autism or bowel disease.

But an independent review of medical research into the vaccine found no evidence of a link and the British government insists that it is safe.

The jab is usually given to children when they are 18 months to two years old. It has been used in Britain since 1988 and in the United States for the past 30 years. More than 200 million doses of the MMR vaccine have been given worldwide.

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, Canada:  Parents with autistic children confronted New Brunswick's Family and Community Services Minister, Tony Huntjens, on July 25 and demanded the release of a 21-year-old autistic man being held in a psychiatric hospital in Saint John.

"This is the most difficult thing I have ever faced," says Muhammad Arif, who is trying to get his autistic son, Walleed, out of Centracare, a psychiatric hospital in Saint John. His son has been there for more than a year and Arif says he hasn't been given a reason why. "I cannot believe that this kind of lack of compassion and this kind of atrocity will go on so long as it has gone."

Other parents of autistic kids from Fredericton, Moncton and Miramichi came to support Arif. But they say their fight goes beyond freeing Walleed.

"We here today are a group of parents with autism. We live, eat and breathe autism. We know what the struggles ar, but as you well know, the incarceration of Walleed Arif into Centracare is totally unacceptable," said Shirley Smallwood.

Arif and his supporters walked from the legislature to Family and Community Services offices. They confronted the Health Minister, who says its takes time to solve problems. "I'll try to intervene and work with the education system and the parents to see if we can come up with a solution."

The province has set aside Canadian$2.8 million for treating autistic children under the age of five. The group of parents want to meet the Minister again to discuss how treatment can be extended to an older age and be covered by Medicare. Hutchins has agreed to meet Arif on July 28 regarding his son. Walleed.

The protesters claimed that the mental-health facility was not well-suited to the needs of autistic individuals and that Walleed'scondition was deteriorating.

Waleed Arif was placed in Centracare by the Department of Family and Community Services in March. The move was against the wishes of his parents and against the advice of health specialists, the group claimed.

New Brunswick does not have a mental-health facility specically designed to treat autistic individuals.

Muhammad Arif said his son was now a shell of his former self, after living in an open Centracare ward. "We see death in his eyes ... every week when we go and visit him," Muhammad Arif said on July 25. "His eyes haunt us."

The group planned to take its protest to the Family and Community Services offices on Queen Street. The parents also want the government to deliver a form of treatment called Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) to autistic sufferers in the province.

The Tory government has promised to make the service available to children aged two to five, but the parents argue that is not enough.

One local mother, Nancy Blanchette, said the treatment could cost $40,000 a year. Her six-year-old son, Justin, is too old to access the services, which still have not been made available to autistic children.

Blanchette said the service was already available in five other Canadian provinces: Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta.

The treatment had been shown dramatically to improve individuals’ autistic disorders, she said. "I don’t want to see any other children or families go through this," Blanchette said.

There are roughly 1,000 individuals with autism in New Brunswick.

Muhammad Arif said the group would keep protesting until the Tory government released his son from Centracare.

They have collected a petition with 800 signatures supporting Waleed’s release, and they intend to have the petition tabled in the legislature after a new sitting begins next week.

A Liberal critic, Michael Murphy, has promised to take up Waleed Arif’s case in the legislature.

BBC News Online, 13/06/2003

In a landmark decision, a British judge ruled on June 13 that two young girls should be given the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination, against the wishes of their mothers.

In the ruling involving two separate sets of parents, Judge Christopher Sumner followed the wishes of the fathers who wanted their daughters to be vaccinated. The two girls - aged four and ten - live with their mothers, but their fathers have "parental responsibility" orders giving them a say in their children's welfare. 

The MMR jab has been clouded in controversy since a medical study by the British gastroenterologist, Dr Andrew Wakefield, published in The Lancet in 1998 raised fears about the safety of the triple vaccine and about a possible link to autism or bowel disease.

But an independent review of medical research into the vaccine found no evidence of a link and the British government insists that it is safe.

Judge Sumner said that the benefits of vaccinating the girls, aged four and 10 years old, outweighed the potential risks. "I am persuaded by the evidence that immunisation is in these girls' best interests," he said.

Louisa Cross, of the Solicitors Family Law Association, said that, to her knowledge, it was the first time a British court had ruled on the MMR vaccination. "This is the sort of thing parents wrestle with every day outside the court framework. It is difficult to know, but this may well be the first time the courts have looked at it," she told Reuters.

Health officials in several countries have warned that refusal to have the combined MMR jab could lead to a resurgence in measles, a highly contagious illness that can cause pneumonia, brain damage, dementia and death.

Officials in Britain believe that parents could be putting their children at unnecessary risk from the diseases if the injections are given separately over three years.

The MMR jab is usually given to children when they are 18 months to two years old. It has been used in Britain since 1988 and in the United States for the past 30 years. More than 200 million doses of the MMR vaccine have been given worldwide.

Toronto Star, 28/06/2003

In Canada a six-year-old Ontario boy has won a court decision requiring the provincial government to continue funding his treatment for autism.

Andrew Lowrey, of Orillia, was diagnosed autistic when he was four.The Ontario government funds intensive behavioural intervention therapy for autistic children at a cost of about canadian$50,000 per child per year. However, the funding ends when the child turns six.
Andrew's parents, David and Maureen Lowrey, challenged the funding cut-off as age-discriminatory and contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

On April 11, Justice Arthur Gans of the Superior Court of Justice granted a temporary injunction compelling the government to continue funding the boy's therapy even though he had reached six years of age. The injunction was to remain in place until Andrew's lawsuit was decided on its merits or until the judgments in similar cases were released later this year.

Justice George Lane dismissed the government's appeal of that decision on May 28.

"Our family is ecstatic, overjoyed and relieved," David Lowrey said in a press release. "Many autistic children can be cured of autism, if they get IBI treatment early enough and long enough. Andrew was late entering IBI therapy, but his progress was truly exceptional and his prognosis is excellent."

"This is a great decision for Andrew, and for other autistic children," said Patrick Lassaline, one of several lawyers representing Andrew in his legal challenge.

This may be the last legal challenge for the boy, said the lawyer who argued Andrew's motion before Lane.

"Similar cases are currently being heard in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and decisions may be rendered later this year. The outcome in those cases will likely determine the law on a final basis, subject to any appeals," said Robert Durante. "Although those decisions will impact Andrew's case, hopefully Andrew's IBI treatment will have run its intended therapeutic course by that time."

Greensburg Daily News, 21/04/2003

GREENSBURG, Indiana, USA: A Bill passed unanimously through the Indiana State Senate last week would expand the definition of autism, and subsequently make government funding more available to anyone diagnosed as autistic.

House Bill 1596, which was authored by a Republican Representative from Greensburg, Cleo Duncan, would cover all diagnoses under the autism umbrella, from the needs of the non-functioning patient to those of genius IQ, and allow more to qualify for Medicaid waivers.

The House unanimously passed the same version of the Bill earlier in the session.

"The number of children identified with autism has increased significantly over the past few years, identifying the need for legislation in this area," said Duncan, former chairwoman of the state's autism commission.

Critics of the current definition of autism claim that it excludes a large portion of the community in need and that, by altering that definition, the state will recognise all autism spectrum disorders, including pervasive developmental disorders.

"The Bill ensures that no child falls through the cracks," said Duncan. "No one should be denied medical coverage because of a technicality."