Have all vaccines been investigated? Have all possible batches been investigated? Have all combinations of these differing medicines been studied? What of the possibility of expired medication?

Based on the way the studies were done, yes. To a large extent these things have been considered and found wanting. Other areas show much more promise and vaccines should be considered not the culprit until new evidence arises or there seems to be no other choice.

Arthur Conan-Doyle's Holmes was wont to say "eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Quite true, but we're a long, long way from that pointing to vaccines. Currently vaccines are one of those things that should be eliminated from consideration.

you have not found a knife wound. You have not found a knife. But what constitutes a knife? could a nearly invisible needle-like object have done the job?

In my analogy, someone is saying they saw a knife, that's the reason it is being looked at first as a possible cause. A nearly invisible needle-like object is a different thing and could indeed be the cause, but it is not a knife. By becoming obsessed with a knife you are likely to miss the actual cause and that is the worry here. By becoming obsessed with vaccines other potential causes aren't being seen.

I just want to do what I can to help my son, and by extension, help prevent other parents and children from going through this.

Of course you do. I would love to help people in this situation as well, but obsessing over the wrong cause doesn't help. It'd be like trying to prevent children from getting head injuries while riding bikes by teaching them to bake.

Yes, I like analogies.

Despite the flippant flavor of the above text, I do not mean to make light of the difficulties in this debate.

Nor do I, but if one of the things you (or your wife) ate while pregnant contained a small amount of a toxin and this child was more at risk than the others it could also have lead to the condition and that's something scientists are trying to study now. That's the type of thing I meant by saying not all conditions are the same. The food in the market right now can be different from what will be there in a few years even if it looks the same.

What if "anecdotal evidence" is all we have?

I don't mean to be harping on your post, it is simply the most recent to state these things.

If anecdotal evidence is all you have, you begin collecting more, do statistical analysis and perform what experiments you have to get better data. This has been done in this case.

Anecdotal evidence isn't all we have, we have numerous, rigerous studies that show no evidence of a link between autism and vaccines.

The ONLY difference in upbringing

Well, no...

And it doesn't necessarily have to involve upbringing.

There were many more differences than you might think or can reasonably account for. Where the pregnant woman (you or your partner) ate and drank, where she travelled, what was in the atmosphere, perhaps what medications she was on, etc...

Also, there's the biology involved. There's an incredible number of differences in the genetic makup of people and it could trace in part or in whole to that.

Once the child was born it didn't eat exactly the same foods, breathe exactly the same air go to exactly the same places or interact with exactly the same objects as your other kids at the same stages in life.

Insisting on one thing that seemed to stand out does not help in determining what actually caused the condition, especially when there have been many sound studies that indicate this is very unlikely to be the cause.

Imagine how you'd feel if you were trying to solve a murder and someone who'd been in the area earlier said "I saw a knife, he must have been stabbed" and you repeatedly find no kife wounds on the victim. The witness keeps saying "But I saw a knife!" This doesn't change the fact that there are no knife wounds. Would it be more profitable for you to look for other causes of death or to keep scouring the body for knife wounds?

If they're going to call everything socialism anyway we should just go ahead and institute a big bunch of it. Fund it with an Eisenhower-like 90% tax on the top 1%. Bring back the estate tax, raise the capital gains tax and so on. This same kind of fear of "socialism" is why we don't have decent health care in this country. Big business would have been helped by it, but were so scared of "socialism" they screwed themselves and the rest of us in the bargain.

Insults must have gotten you far in life. Enjoy it now, because it won't last forever.

Have you read your posts? Hypocracy is what I should expect from you though...

And as far as Jello goes, you clearly don't understand what a "sellout" is. It shows how well you understand the Fairness doctrine as well. You're claiming that his opposition to selling out makes him a sellout.

Utterly inane.

Insults must have gotten you far in life. Enjoy it now, because it won't last forever.

Have you read your posts? Hypocracy is what I should expect from you though...

And as far as Jello goes, you clearly don't understand what a "sellout" is. It shows how well you understand the Fairness doctrine as well. You're claiming that his opposition to selling out makes him a sellout.

Utterly inane.