Some parents suspect that childhood vaccines have precipitated autism in their children and some have gone so far as to bring their concerns to the attention of the courts. In 2008, families claiming that the mercury preservative in vaccines triggered their children's autism, took their case to federal court.http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,355018,00.html 4900 families filed claims with the U.S. Court of Claims, claiming that vaccines caused autism, as well as other neurological problems.http://www.mlnlaw.com/Articles/Families-will-make-case-for-vaccine-link-to-autism.shtml However, in 2009, the Special Masters assigned to the cases involving the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) and thimerosal-containing vaccines, concluded that there was no link between autism and the vaccinations.http://www.autism-watch.org/omnibus/overview.shtml

In 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield and several co-authors, published a study that linked the MMR vaccination and autism.http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20110105/bmj-wakefield-autism-faq The study looked at 12 children that had been vaccinated with the MMR vaccine in a London hospital and noted that all 12 children developed intestinal abnormalities and started developmental regression soon after.http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20110105/bmj-wakefield-autism-faq As a result, the number of MMR vaccines given plummeted and measles began to be seen in the United Kingdom and Europe.

In 2010, the study was formally retracted by The Lancet, and in 2011, Dr. Wakefield's medical license was revoked for unethical treatment of patients.http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20110105/bmj-wakefield-autism-faq The study has been officially declared a fraud by a leading U.K. medical journal and U.K. investigative reporter, Brian Deer.http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20110105/bmj-wakefield-autism-faq

In March 2008, Hannah Poling was awarded compensation in a lawsuit in which her parents claimed that her autism was caused by nine vaccines she received in 2000. In the award, however, the decision was that the vaccines had aggravated a mitochondrial disease, which in turn led to her autism. It did not acknowledge that the vaccines themselves caused her autism. The general scientific community continues to maintain that there is no evidence proving the link.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23508982/

"Parents have observed a time association between when their child got vaccinated and when they had a worsening of their clinical state...But just because two things occur at the same time, it doesn't mean that one caused the other."—Dr. Douglas Wallace, director of the Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics at the University of California, Irvinehttp://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5276589&page=1

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