WASHINGTON, July 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The (AAPS) is calling for an immediate moratorium on mandatory hepatitis B vaccines for schoolchildren pending further research about dangerous side effects, and has accused school districts which require the shots of practicing medicine without a license.

"Children younger than 14 are three times more likely to die or suffer adverse reactions after receiving hepatitis B vaccines than to catch the disease," said Jane M. Orient, M.D., executive director of AAPS. "It's one thing to bar a student from school if he is carrying an infectious disease posing a threat to other children. But to require a questionable medical treatment as a condition of attendance crosses over the line to practicing medicine," said Dr. Orient.

In the US, hepatitis B is primarily an adult disease, not spread by casual contact. Risk is highly dependent on lifestyle, i.e. multiple sex partners, drug abuse or an occupation with exposure to blood. Yet the CDC recommends all newborns be given this vaccine, and many school districts require it. Even state legislatures are guilty of this medical malpractice. For example, earlier this year, the Ohio State legislature passed a law requiring all schoolchildren to receive three doses of the vaccine.

According to a recent federal government study, serious adverse events after the vaccine -- including 48 deaths -- are reported three times as frequently as cases of hepatitis B in children under the age of 14. "We suspect the adverse reactions are vastly underreported, as formal long-term studies of vaccine safety have not been completed," says Dr. Orient. "We find it shocking that government health officials cavalierly dismiss reports of serious adverse vaccine effects as coincidental and that school officials ignore them altogether."

In calling for the moratorium on hepatitis B mandates, Dr. Orient warns the increasing "vaccine cocktails" administered to children may be hazardous to their health. "Mandates effectively use schoolchildren as research subjects subjected to unproved medical treatment without informed consent, in violation of the Nuremberg Code. If school administrators and government bureaucrats were subject to that code, they could be prosecuted as war criminals," says Dr. Orient.

A recent study of national vaccine policy published in the Medical Sentinel, the official journal of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, exposes the secret process stacked with special interests that decides vaccine policies of the federal government. The members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) are often nominated by the drug companies and have substantial financial ties to the drug companies….Members are forbidden to publicly discuss what happens during closed portions of the meetings. The precise scientific, medical, and political bases for the vaccine recommendations are never revealed. Thus the drug companies and CDC have strong incentives to expand immunization programs. --(Roger Schlafly, Ph.D., "Official Vaccine Policy Flawed," Medical Sentinel, Vol. 4, No. 3, pg. 106.)

"We suspect financial ties between vaccine manufacturers and medical groups such as the American Medical Association and AAP which endorse the vaccine," says Dr. Orient, pointing to a substantial donation to AAP from Merck & Co. "And the federal government pays the state a bonus up to $100 for every 'fully' vaccinated child." What's their motive -- money or medicine?"

"To all those concerned about vaccine issues, dare we hope that this call for a moratorium by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons signals a turning of the tide towards truth, honesty, and disclosure of the real risks of this vaccine and others on children's health?" - Edda West, Vaccine Risk Awareness Network.