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Judges Halt Forced Military Anthrax Shots
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon (news - web sites) must stop forcing servicemen and women to take the
anthrax vaccination against their will, unless President Bush (news - web sites) signs a special
order, a judge ruled Monday.
Millions of shots have been given and hundreds of service members have been punished for refusing
them since the mandatory vaccinations started in 1998.
The judge ruled that the anthrax vaccinations fell under a 1998 law prohibiting the use of certain
experimental drugs unless people being given the drug consent or the president waives the consent
requirement.
Congress passed the law following fears that the use of such drugs may have led to unexplained
illnesses among veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War (news - web sites) that have come to be known
as Gulf War Syndrome (news - web sites).
"The women and men of our armed forces put their lives on the line every day to preserve and
safeguard the freedoms that all Americans cherish and enjoy," said Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the
United States District Court in Washington.
"Absent an informed consent or presidential waiver, the United States cannot demand that members of
the armed forces also serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs," Sullivan said.
The Pentagon had no immediate comment.
Sullivan rejected the government concern that military discipline would be harmed if courts
intervene between soldiers and their military superiors.
Believing Iraq (news - web sites) and other nations had produced anthrax weapons, former Secretary
of Defense William Cohen in 1997 ordered the armed forces immunized.
Shots started in 1998 for soldiers in areas believed to present the highest risk of infection - the
Persian Gulf, then Korea.