Order had refused to transfer vaccine files

By Conall ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner
June 10, 2014

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/order-had-refused-to-transfer-vaccine-files-271564.html

The order which ran the mother-and-baby home in Bessborough in Cork initially refused to transfer files relating to controversial vaccine trials to the HSE.

The Irish Examiner revealed in 2011 that, as the former adoption agency operated by the Sacred Heart Sisters had not applied for accreditation, and was not compelled to do so under the Adoption Act, its files would remain the private property of the order and could not be inspected by the Adoption Authority.

While the order did later agree to transfer around 25,000 files to the HSE, in a letter sent to one of the victims of the trials, Maureen Downey Hickey, who was later adopted to the US, the HSE stated it had “been advised that immunisation records will continue to be the responsibility of the order”.

More than 210 infants and babies, some 123 of whom were in the care of the State, took part in three confirmed trials to test vaccines between 1960 and 1973.

Since 2011, a number of people sent to the US for adoption and adopted domestically have filed requests under the Data Protection Act, asking for medical files and any evidence of their participation in the trials run by the Wellcome Foundation — whose income came from British drugs-maker, Burroughs Wellcome, which was later subsumed into GlaxoSmithKline.

Now adults, the participants say the drugs were given without parental consent and they have spent years trying to access their medical files and pharmaceutical information.

Adoption groups at the time expressed concern about the length of time the transfer is taking and for the safety of the files while still in the care of the order.

Bessborough mother-and-baby home also operated as an adoption society, and has been routinely criticised for its adoption record as well as its handling of tracing and information requests.

The Laffoy Commission on Child Abuse was investigating vaccine trials between 1940 and 1987 as part of a separate module. However, the probe was brought to a halt after court action taken by the doctors involved in the trials.

Ms Justice Laffoy resigned as chair of the commission in 2003, accusing the then Fianna Fáil-led government of delaying and obstructing her inquiry.

US coordinator with the Adoption Rights Alliance, Mari Steed, said the move towards a government-led inquiry was not acceptable and repeated the call for a fully independent inquiry.

“That approach will be nothing more than a rethread of the McAleese Magdalene investigation and subsequent report. The UN Committee Against Torture stated that, despite its length and detail, that effort was not a fully independent investigation, and we couldn’t agree more. It is not acceptable in this instance either.”