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Catch this quick ’cause Radio 4 will only have this up for 7 days.

Abel Ryder refused to have his third son vaccinated against small pox because he had already lost two sons to the vaccine. He was imprisoned and charged, but his staunch refusal led to the current laws on vaccination which states these cannot be mandatory. The smallpox vaccination was withdrawn on 21.6.03 because of the dangers of pericarditis and myocarditis which resulted.

Radio 4 Wednesday Afternoon Play 14:15 20.6.07
Afternoon Play
Abel’s Law

By Hugh Costello.

Following a series of deadly smallpox epidemics in the 19th century, the British Government introduced mandatory vaccination for infants under six months. It was only partly successful: in 1871, a smallpox epidemic killed 40,000 people. Moreover, vaccination carried its own agonising risks - not all babies were strong enough to survive the shock to their immune systems.

1874 Bicester, Oxfordshire. Abel Ryder, shopkeeper and pillar of the community, is imprisoned because he has refused to submit his newborn son Edward to a compulsory smallpox vaccination. Already two of his sons had died following vaccination, and he decides to take a stand. Abel’s Law dramatises the story of his stand, his defiance of the law, the court case and the moral dilemma that Abel Ryder’s decision has put him in.

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