BMJ  2007;335:62-63 (14 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.39272.468044.4E

News

GMC hearing against Wakefield and colleagues opens

Owen Dyer

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The UK General Medical Council will this week hear charges of serious professional misconduct against three authors of a study published in 1998 in the Lancet that triggered a public health scare by suggesting a link between autism and the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine (1998;351:637-41 doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(97)11096-0).

Andrew Wakefield, John Walker-Smith, and Simon Murch are accused of carrying out research in 1996-8 without proper ethical approval and of failing to carry out the research as described in the application to the ethics committee.

The formal charges will not be released until the case starts on 16 July, but in a statement the GMC said that the three researchers will also be accused of carrying out potentially harmful tests on the children that were not clinically indicated, including colonoscopies and lumbar punctures.

In one case, the GMC will allege, Dr Wakefield and Professor Walker-Smith "administered a purportedly therapeutic . . . [Full text of this article]


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