Renewed debate over autism/vaccine link

My father-in-law had polio as a child, and my son has autism. I think that we should rid vaccines of mercury, but I also don't think they caused my kid's autism. I also believe firmly that vaccines serve a positive purpose that too often gets overlooked in this debate.

My father-in-law would not have suffered in the iron lung nor would he have suffered the indignity of post-polio syndrome in his adulthood if he had been able to receive the polio vaccine.

As for my kid's autism, I'm more interested in making his life better now than in finding a cause or punishing the "bad guys" that made him what he is (and what he is is pretty damn cool).

But I do sympathize with people whose kids are far worse off than my own, and understand their need to find blame. I simply don't have that need.

Here's an interesting blog on the subject, written by a dad of an autistic kid: http://notmercury.blogspot.com/2006/02/i-was-wrong.html