So by not believing anything the press says I have faith in the press...
Of course I have read the report, I don't know anyone in 'real life' (not internet folk) who haven't read the report apart from children.
In his paper Lancet states that bowel inflammation and generally ill health is associated with autism (neuropsychi-atric dysfunction being the correct term) (which is true in certain causes of autism), he then went on to state that the cause of bowel in health in the 12 children was caused by the MMR, which then developed in autism.
Lancet stated that the bowel problem most commonly develops due to environmental effects, where he suggested the sole environmental influence was that of the MMR vaccine. You should be able to find the article on google scholar or web of science.
The people in the study did not have those choices, they had the choice of carrying on the study, or pulling out the study, there was no threatened institutionalisation, especially as anyone under 16 can only be placed in a children's mental health until with permission from both legal parents, it must also be done with the consent of two GP's and one psychologist, Lancet and his colleagues were neither.
C.P Farrington is quite a good paper showing that MMR does not cause/trigger autism, but you would have to pay to view it, I'll get another study I know that you can free online without cost, it is a fairly short paper.
http://www.morrisonlucas.com/GL/vacc...o_evidence.pdf