Link between the MMR vaccine and autism

One key argument in this case, is that babies who were previously healthy, normal kids, become autistic after they have had the vaccine. The parents of these babies claim that their babies were 'poisoned', and only became autistic after having the shot. However, many argue that there is absolutely no link between the vaccine and the babies autism. I argue that there is probably a link between the two. Evidence behind this, is many countries around the world have withdrawn the vaccine, and have such low autism rates, as opposed to America, who still has the vaccine, and every one in 150 children are autistic, and 1 in 6 have developmental disorders. Other evidence backing this up is in 1988, 2/3 vaccines released had to be withdrawn due to safety reasons, which shows there is history of unsafe vaccines. In other research, 12 children were given the MMR vaccine, and within days, 8 of them showed signs of behavioural disorders. Also, in March 2008, the Federal Claims court listened to one family and concluded that there was a connection between the vaccine and their autistic child.
In this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIlbmynnSew&feature=related, from 4:25 onwards, is also evidence there is a connection.
Opposing evidence shows results of tests carried out on hundreds of children who have had the vaccine and have not been affected.

Lesson 1 - 02/02/11 - Double Peroid

Today was our first Theory of Knowledge Lesson with Mr. Smith. When we all walked into the classroom, we were very unsure as to what to expect, as we never had has Mr. Smith before, neither had we ever taken this subject before.
However todays double lesson was really enjoyable. We were pleasantly surprised with Mr. Smith, as he turned out to be a very calm, nice man. This, like we talked about in class, made me instantly interested in the lesson, because if the teacher had come across as strict, grumpy and unfair, I would have lost interest in the subject straight away.
After explaining what TOK would involve and what the subject was about, the highlight of the lesson for me was when Mr. Smith walked out of the classroom, came in again (looking strict and grumpy), made us stand up and almost sing the school song (he singled out Bridie). This was pretty funny and added some great humor into out lesson, as well as making us think.
I also enjoyed discussing the word 'Truth', in our group and then as a whole class. We tried to define what the word meant, and a particularly interesting part was when we connected beliefs and God with the word truth. We talked about how religion and god are not necessarily truth, as there is no definite facts or evidence that there is. The only so-called 'evidence' is in the form of human miracles (which could be 'coincidences') and the bible (which itself is not proven to be factual). But religion and god are beliefs that we have grown up with, influenced by different cultures and upbringings.