The Supreme Court has upheld a ruling that the Dublin City Coroner exceeded his powers by conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into whether a childhood pertussis vaccination contributed to the death of 22-year-old Alan Duffy.
Mr Duffy died in the Mater Hospital on 31 December 1995 after developing pneumonia. His treating consultant considered the medical cause of death to be aspiration pneumonia associated with severe neurological disability. Mr Duffy’s parents maintained that his disability followed an adverse reaction to the 3-in-1 vaccine administered during infancy.
Coroner Brian Farrell opened an inquest in December 1997. Evidence was heard from Mr Duffy’s mother and several doctors. Medical opinion on any connection between vaccination and neurological damage was disputed.
The coroner later commissioned an independent report from consultant Dr Karina Butler. Her 43-page report reviewed 57 studies and concluded that no child had been proven to have permanent neurological damage caused by pertussis vaccine, while also stating that an extremely rare possibility had not been conclusively excluded.
The Eastern Health Board challenged the course of the inquest. The High Court ruled in December 1999 that the inquiry had gone beyond what the Coroners Act 1962 allowed.
Chief Justice Ronan Keane, delivering the Supreme Court judgment, agreed. He held that coroners can investigate surrounding circumstances even where facts may later be relevant to civil or criminal liability. But the statutory question of how a death occurred remains limited.
The court found that tracing Mr Duffy’s death back through his neurological condition to vaccination in infancy would transform the inquest into a broad scientific inquiry not contemplated by the Act. The lengthy adjournments and commissioning of extensive expert research reinforced that conclusion.
The Supreme Court dismissed the coroner’s appeal and affirmed the High Court order.