July 16, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Dr Andrew Wakefield, who first suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, “paid children £5 to take blood samples at his son’s birthday party, a hearing was told,” today’s BBC news reports.
What?
It’s the birthday party business that really puzzles me…..
[...] In light of reports about Wakefield in a humorous mood while purchasing blood from children at a birthday party, the dark art of the “MMR-autism scare” is looking very dark indeed. ASD, Aspergers, [...]
[...] on 12 children between 1996 and 1998.” Among the allegations is a charge that he took blood samples from children at his son’s birthday party; the children were paid [...]
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Yes, that concerned me greatly when i first heard about it a long-while back. It’s very predatory behaviour and speaks volumes.
It does speak volumes that friends of Dr. Wakefield would allow their children to be compensated for medical information. Does that make it unethical? If it does then shut down NIH, NIMH, and every other scientific government agency that specifically targeted medical information from me and compensated me well for the information.
That’s absolutely creepy.
Brian Deer quotes Wakefield about the birthday party here:
http://briandeer.com/wakefield/birthday-blood.htm
Chuck: Did Wakefield take medical histories prior to taking blood from each child? Did here wear gloves? Was the environment sterile? Was there a crash cart at the party in case something went awry? Come now, to compare a birthday bash at the Wakefield’s to an exam room at the NIH is patently absurd.
Your bedroom is probably closer to sterile then most GP’s waiting rooms. Why would anyone need a “crash cart” to draw blood? Unless you have been to the 50+ year old government maintained NIH exam room that I was in, what you are saying is patently absurd.
Somehow I don’t think drawing blood is the best of games to play at a birthday party.
We weren’t talking about my bedroom, Chuck, we were discussing Wakefield’s lack of ethics. BTW, he was not licensed to treat patients. He had no business whatsoever taking blood from kids at a birthday party at his house. Did he wear gloves?
The practice of taking blood from children at a birthday party, not to mention subjecting 11 children “to a series of invasive tests, including colonoscopies, lumbar punctures, blood and urine tests and MRI scans” seems highly unethical and against common medical/scientific practice. (I have to wonder if these children were able to give consent to “colonoscopies and lumbar punctures”? And, for what purpose did they serve?) Such experiments, which is exactly what they were, are to be performed in laboratory conditions under the proper supervision.
I also have to wonder what information the parents and children were given to help them give informed consent?
Also, what was the purposes of testing these children at this party? All neurotypical? All on the spectrum? All received the MMR vaccine from same location? All lived in the same location? All relatively the same age, same race, same gender? There are way too many variables to even consider that findings from a children’s birthday party was relevant. There’s a reason why universities and hospitals have Institutional Review Boards overseeing the use of human test subjects. It’s unethical and repulsive and a doctor with any kind of concern for medical ethics should know (and do) better.
Waker’s on the bloody birthday:
“But, and, they put their arms out and they have the blood taken. All entirely voluntary. [laughter]. “And when we did this at that party, two children fainted, one threw up over his mother [laughter].
Um, as a mother who has been thrown up on by one of her children away from home, that’s just not a fun thing for anyone involved. Laughing over it? Sheesh. That’s the politest thing I have to say about that, Sheesh.