May 13 2008
To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate
There’s a proposal in the UK to “encourage” more parents to have their children vaccinated. They intend to use the stick approach rather than the carrot – for example one of the “punishments” that parents who don’t allow their child to receive the vaccines will be that their child won’t be allowed to enter school. Another proposed “punishment” is that they will be financially penalized. What kind of crazy idea is that? Isn’t the UK a democracy? Or should that be democrazy?
There is so much talk about these vaccines not being as safe to all children as they were initially thought. Some of this is supported by research. There is no research that says the vaccinations are guaranteed 100% safe to all children, and that’s why parents are becoming more wary about letting their children have these vaccines.
If there’s any possibility that a child may be adversely affected by some chemicals that are injected in order to combat other heath issues, shouldn’t that be the parent’s decision? Isn’t it the child’s parent who will have to live with not only the fact that their child has a health problem that was possibly caused from a vaccination, but also that they were the ones who made the decision to vaccinate? At least if the worst happens, they know they made their decision based on the facts available and it was their decision. With the proposed UK approach, parents will have to live with the results of a decision made not on their research, but also on what will happen to them if they choose to ignore what the Government decides.
I may be wrong but my idea of a free choice country is not one where the Government makes decisions that are better left to the parents who are raising the children.
2 Responses to “To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Not A Member? Register for Free!
………… and what about Gardasil?
I don’t think that this is part of the proposal at the moment. From what I understand the proposal covers the vaccines that children get before they start school, which is why they can suggest blocking children who aren’t vaccinated from starting school. It will be a much more difficult situation to do that with the older girls.
I do know however that there are a number of parents in the UK at least who are opposed to Gardasil because they believe it will make their child more promiscuous. I don’t agree with their argument, but again I believe it ought to be up to each parent to make the decision they think is best for their child. They have to live with the outcome of that decision for the rest of their lives.