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Terri Mauro
Terri's Special Children Blog

By Terri Mauro, About.com Guide to Special Children

Did the vaccination debate end this marriage?

Tuesday April 19, 2005
It's not often that parents of children with special needs see their concerns written about on the gossip pages. But the debate over the MMR vaccine and autism was a key component in British tabloid reports on the marital breakup of actors Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards. The "irreconcilable differences" in this case, the stories speculate, didn't have to do with addictions or infidelity or career paths but whether to give their two-year-old daughter the MMR vaccine, with Mom wanting to immunize and Dad concerned over the possibility that the triple-jab might cause autism. Whether or not it's really splitting up Hollywood couples, the link between autism and MMR is a subject of heated disagreement. What's less talked-about, though, is that even those who feel vaccines are safe and essential agree that there are people for whom a high degree of caution is in order. Is your child's disorder on this list?

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