CALLOUS DISREGARD CL

In 1995 Andrew Wakefield, an academic gastroenterologist at the Royal Free School of Medicine and the University of London, was presented with a professional challenge and confronted by a moral choice. Previously normal children were, according to their parents, regressing into autism and developing intestinal problems - many parents blamed the MMR vaccine. Trusting in his medical training, the parental narrative, and above all, the instinct of mothers for their children's well-being, he chose the hard road. As a result, Wakefield lost his job in London's Royal Free Hospital, his country of birth, his career, and his medical license. Maligned by the medical establishment and mainstream media, Dr. Wakefield endeavors set to the record straight in Callous Disregard.

Andrew Wakefield, MB, BS, FRCS, FRCPath, is an academic gastroenterologist. He received his medical degree from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School (part of the University of London) in 1981, and pursued a career in gastrointestinal surgery with a particular interest in inflammatory bowel disease. He qualified as Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985 and in 1996 was awarded a Wellcome Trust Traveling Fellowship to study small intestinal transplantation in Toronto, Canada. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2001. He has published over 130 original scientific articles, book chapters, and invited scientific commentaries. In the pursuit of possible links between childhood vaccines, intestinal inflammation, and neurologic injury in children, Dr. Wakefield lost his job in the Department of Medicine at London's Royal Free Hospital, his country of birth, his career, and his medical license. He and his wife, Carmel, a physician and a classical radio presenter, live in Austin, Texas, and have four children: James, Sam, Imogen, and Corin.