FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST KAISER HOSPITALS BY MAN WHO REFUSED MUMPS VACCINATION

Kaiser Failed to Accommodate Ethical Belief of Not Harming Animals By Firing the Vegan Computer Technician

February 14, 2000, DOWNEY, CALIFORNIA -- A major news conference will be held Tuesday, February 15, 2000, at 10 a.m., shortly after service of the Summons and Complaint upon the Kaiser Defendants, at Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (9449 Imperial Highway, Downey, California) to announce a multi-million lawsuit by a former worker who was fired because of his ethical belief of not harming animals.

In what could be the first lawsuit of its kind, Jerold Friedman, a former contract worker at Kaiser, alleges that his contract was canceled and a full-time work offer was rescinded in April of 1998 when he refused – for ethical and religious reasons – to take a mumps vaccination that included material from chicken embryos.

"His job (was) rescinded solely because he refused to take a mumps vaccination which (violated) his strongly held ethical principles and beliefs...(he) suffered severe and irreparable injuries as a result," according to a complaint filed by attorney Scott D. Myer.

Mr. Friedman said he refused the test because it is grown in chicken embryos, violating his "vegan" beliefs, which prohibit the eating, wearing or using of any animal products. "Egg-laying hens suffer greatly in chicken factory farms, and the use of unborn chickens to culture the mumps vaccine causes further unnecessary deaths," he explained.

According to the complaint, Mr. Friedman also discovered that a tuberculosis test administered to him by Kaiser – which, he had been assured by Kaiser, contained no animal products – did, in fact, include a bovine (cow) serum. The suit contends that the TB test violated state law, which protects people from being unwitting experimental subjects. Mr. Friedman said he was not fully informed about the medical procedure, as required by law, and is now charging he was made a "medical experiment" under the law.

The complaint also alleges Mr. Friedman continues to "suffer loss of income, pain and suffering, post-traumatic stress disorder, embarrassment, anxiety, humiliation and extreme and severe mental anguish and emotional distress" because of his employment termination, and the injection of cow serum.

Or For an HTML Version of the Complaint as Filed, Click Here.