Irish Woman Wants to Sue Religious Order over Vaccination, The CathNews, August 23 2010

Irish Woman Wants to Sue Religious Order over Vaccination

The CathNews
August 23 2010

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=22941

A US-based Irish woman is one of four people wanting to sue the Sacred Heart religious order in the US for subjecting her to a vaccine trial as a baby without her mother's consent.

Mari Steed, 50, was effectively used as a guinea pig during the vaccine trials carried out on her between December 1960 and October 1961 when she was between nine and 18 months old, said a report in the Belfast Telegraph.

She was given up for adoption to a couple in the US shortly afterwards and is also preparing a class action in the US courts against the GlaxoSmithKline drug company, said an Irish Independent investigation.

She was administered the vaccine - a trial "four-in-one shot" to examine what would happen if four vaccines were combined in one overall jab - at least four times at the Sacred Heart Convent, Bessborough, in Cork, also known as the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home, said the report.

Ms Steed became aware she had been subjected to the vaccine trials after she retrieved her medical documents while trying to track down her mother, Josephine, in the late 1990s.

Josephine, who is now in a nursing home in the UK, last night said the tests were carried out on her baby daughter without her consent or knowledge of her medical history.

Ms Steed, who now lives in Philadelphia, and a number of other victims in the US are taking the landmark case because repeated attempts to seek justice in the Republic of Ireland have failed.

"The trials involved incredibly poor judgment on the part of all involved. We were basically used as human guinea pigs," Ms Steed told the Irish Independent.