Medicine: Vaccine & the Law

The possible dangers of being vaccinated against polio, and the opposite dangers of not being vaccinated, both became legal issues last week. ¶ Palmer Lee Martin, 41, filed a $300,000 damage suit in Atlanta against the Cutter Laboratories of Berkeley, Calif, and their Atlanta distributors, charging that he caught poliomyelitis from his son, who developed the disease a week following inoculation with vaccine that contained live virus (before improved testing methods were adopted by manufacturers). The child’s symptoms were mild and he made a good recovery, but the father’s case was severe. Martin’s suit charges that he was unable to work for nine months, spent six months under treatment at Warm Springs, Ga., can now work only part time (for Lockheed Aircraft Corp.), and “still suffers and will continue to suffer for the remainder of his life very substantial physical disability.”

¶ Carolyn Conn, 30, faced Judge Harry G. Hershenson in Chicago because her ex-husband complained that she would not allow Salk vaccination of their daughter Alyson, 7. Mrs. Conn protested that it was dangerous and against her religious beliefs as a Christian Scientist. Said the judge: “I fail to see where a religious issue is involved.” He set a precedent by ordering Alyson to be taken to a doctor and vaccinated.