At last someone has written in to offer a more balanced view of the MMR vaccination controversy.

According to most media reports, the research linking the MMR vaccine with autism has been discredited.

But as Gabriel Millar points out ('Vaccination is a massive fraud' - letters June 19), the supposedly discredited findings of Dr Andrew Wakefield have been corroborated by later research.

This means that the current vaccination campaign may well result in an upsurge of autism cases or other side effects in the coming years.

The effects of vaccination may not be fully understood but negative side effects frequently do occur and parents need to aware of the risks.

Measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, whooping cough are all childhood illnesses.

Although in a minority of cases there may be complications, most children go through these illnesses quickly, recover and as the writer indicates, come out stronger afterwards.

They are generally also immune to any repeat infections - which is not necessarily the case with vaccination.

Whatever the pros and cons of vaccination however, parents should be free to make up their own minds and be able weigh up all the risks involved.

This means having full access to the available information.

Unfortunately NHS doctors are not allowed to discuss the possible side-effects of vaccination, nor can they support parents who choose not to vaccinate - on pain of losing their job!

They even get a bonus payment for each vaccination carried out.

This is a real scandal and an extraordinary situation to have in a so-called free country.

Bernard Jarman Stroud