Britain bans doctor who linked autism to vaccine

LONDON — A doctor whose research and public statements caused widespread alarm that a common childhood vaccine could cause autism was banned Monday from practicing medicine in his native Britain for ethical lapses, including conducting invasive medical procedures on children that were not needed.

The General Medical Council applied its most severe sanction against Dr. Andrew Wakefield, 53, who abandoned his medical practice in Britain in 2004 as questions intensified about his research and set up a center to study childhood developmental disorders in Texas, despite not being licensed as a physician there.

After the longest investigation in its history, the council in January found several instances of what it said was Wakefield's unprofessional conduct.

It cited his taking blood samples for his study from children at his son's birthday party. Wakefield paid each child 5 pounds, about $7.20 today, and joked about it later.

The council also noted that part of the costs of Wakefield's research was paid by lawyers for parents seeking to sue vaccine makers for damages.

Wakefield resigned in February as a staff researcher at Thoughtful House, an alternative-medicine clinic in Austin, Texas.

He continued to speak out against his treatment in Britain, as he did in interviews in New York on Monday, when he called the British decision to strike him off the medical register an effort to "discredit and silence" him. He said he would appeal the decision, which will take effect within 28 days unless suspended for legal reasons.

The disciplinary tribunal's action came after more than a decade of controversy over the links Wakefield and associates in Britain, as well as supporters among parents in Britain and the United States, have made between autism and a commonly used vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.

The suggestion of a link caused use of the vaccine in Britain and elsewhere to plummet, a development that critics of Wakefield said contributed to a sharp rise in measles cases in countries where the vaccine was in use.

Most scientific papers have failed to find any links between vaccines and autism.

The furor was touched off by a 1998 article in The Lancet, a British medical journal. The journal retracted the study in February after the medical council in London concluded Wakefield had been dishonest and that he had violated ethical rules.

The council said he had shown "a callous disregard" for the suffering of children involved in his research. The ruling banning him from practicing medicine was a sequel to the January finding.

The council also barred from practice one of Wakefield's associates, Dr. John Walker-Smith, 73, who had been found guilty of professional misconduct and retired from medicine 10 years ago. A second associate, Dr. Simon Murch, was found not guilty of professional misconduct and allowed to continue practicing.