IS ABORTED FETAL DNA LINKED TO AUTISM?
By Theresa A. Deisher, Ph.D.
http://www.all.org/article/index/id/NDAzOQ
2009
Just when the pharmaceutical industry thought the
vaccine-autism controversy had been resolved, the National Vaccine Advisory
Committee has recommended further study of vaccine safety. A perceived fear of
the safety of the U.S. vaccination schedule has led increasing numbers of
parents to opt out of full compliance. The numbers of children who are not fully
vaccinated has now reached a point where “herd” immunity may be compromised,
compelling the Centers for Disease Control to hold town-hall meetings and
convene a Vaccine Safety Working Subgroup. Despite research ruling out mercury
(Thimerosal) or the measles portion of one specific vaccine, autism continues to
rise to a level of one in every 64 children in the UK.
The NVAC draft report recommends further study of the potential for vaccines to
contribute to autism in
children who have underlying mitochondrial disease, a worthwhile study given the
clinical history of such children developing autism after vaccinations (see Poling case).
What the NVAC has overlooked, however, in their recommendations, is that
epidemic regressive autism is associated with the switch from using animal cells
to produce vaccines to the use of aborted human fetal cells for vaccine
production. Now when we vaccinate our children, some vaccines also deliver
contaminating aborted human fetal DNA. The safety of this has never been tested.
Autism and autism spectrum disorder are polygenic diseases, meaning that
multiple genes have been shown to be associated with these diseases. Studies
have also clearly shown that there is an environmental component, a trigger,
that is required. Vaccines are an obvious potential environmental trigger for
autism because of the almost universal childhood exposure to vaccines in first
world countries. The vaccine-autism connection was first hypothesized following
the introduction of a new measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to the U.S.
in 1979, with complete U.S. market share by 1983, and to the UK in 1988. Autism
rates began to rise in the U.S. after 1979 and rose dramatically after 1983, and
likewise rose in the UK after 1988, leading physicians to suspect a link.
Initially, the measles component of this vaccine, MMR II, was suspected to be
the culprit. Subsequent studies have also focused on the presence of mercury in
vaccines, which incidentally, the MMR II vaccine did not contain.
Those studies have largely ruled out the new measles portion of the MMR II or
mercury as the environmental trigger for autism. However, the compelling
temporal association between this new MMR vaccine and autism cannot be ignored
or explained away. What has been ignored is the fact that this new MMR vaccine
introduced the use of aborted fetal cells for vaccine production. At one point,
as much as 94 percent of children in the U.S. and 98 percent of children in the
UK were given this vaccine.
Today, more than 23 vaccines are contaminated by the use of aborted fetal cells.
There is no law that requires that consumers be informed that some vaccines are
made using aborted fetal cells and contain residual aborted fetal DNA. While
newer vaccines produced using aborted fetal cells do inform consumers, in their
package inserts, that the vaccines contain contaminating DNA from the cell used
to produce the vaccine, they do not identify the cells as being derived from
electively aborted human fetuses. (See the Varivax—chicken
pox—package insert for the presence of MRC5 residual DNA.)
In other words, they tell you what is in the vaccine, but they don’t fully
inform you where it came from. The earliest aborted fetal cell-produced vaccines
such as Meruvax (rubella) and MMR II
do not even inform consumers that the vaccines contain contaminating DNA from
the cell used to produce them. Furthermore, it is unconscionable that the
public-health risk of injecting our children with residual contaminating human
aborted fetal DNA has been ignored.
How could the contaminating aborted fetal DNA create problems? It creates the
potential for autoimmune responses and/or inappropriate insertion into our own
genomes through a process called recombination. There are groups researching the
potential link between this DNA and autoimmune diseases such as juvenile (type
I) diabetes, multiple sclerosis and lupus. Our organization, Sound
Choice Pharmaceutical Institute, is focused on studying the quantity,
characteristics and genomic recombination of the aborted fetal DNA found in many
of our vaccines.
Preliminary bioinformatics research conducted at SCPI indicates that “hot spots”
for DNA recombination are found in nine autism-associated genes present on the X
chromosome. These nine genes are involved in nerve-cell synapse formation,
central nervous system development and mitochondrial function.
Could genomic insertion of the aborted fetal DNA, found in some of our childhood
vaccines since 1979, be an environmental trigger for autism? Could the fact that
genes critical for nerve synapse formation and nervous system development are
found on the X chromosome provide some explanation of why autism is
predominantly a disease found in boys? Could the “hot spots” identified in these
autism-associated genes be sites for insertion of contaminating aborted fetal
DNA?
These questions must be answered, and quickly. Recent literature suggests that
autism spectrum disorder may now impact one out of every 100 children. The
pharmaceutical industry is also currently moving to replace more animal-produced
vaccines with aborted-fetal-cell production and also to produce biologic drugs
using aborted fetal cells.
The practice of using aborted fetal cells for vaccine and drug production
creates wrenching moral dilemmas for parents and consumers, ignores informed
consent rights, and exposes our children and ourselves to contaminants lacking
safety evaluations. We cannot ignore this issue in good conscience, and we
cannot afford to wait.
Dr. Deisher is president of Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (www.soundchoice.org), as well as a cofounder and the research and development director for Ave Maria Biotechnology Company (www.avmbiotech.com), which promote pro-life biotechnology. This article is an adaptation and update ofSound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute’s June 2009 newsletter and is published with its kind permission. For more information on Dr. Deisher, see "Providing real choice: A conversation with Dr. Theresa Deisher" in American Life League's Celebrate Life magazine (January-February 2009) .