Perg,
Just a gentle encouragement to not go too far to an extreme, accusing of breaking the 6th commandment when someone does not choose to vaccinate or does not get all the recommended vaccinations. I think it would be wise to speak about this a little less emphatically.
I understand your position and respect it. As I explained earlier, I have first-hand experience to approach vaccines with caution and weigh both sides of the equation.
You may continue to provide evidence supporting your convictions, but to me, my sister is a person, not a statistic.
Tim:
I believe it would be a good idea to keep the question of morality as part of this discussion since it concerns public health: (1) Public health decisions have moral implications. Some private or family decisions impact neighbors and the society at large (2) Knowingly exposing your sick or unvaccinated kids to the general vaccinated population increases the chances of sickening others. (3) large groups of unvaccinated kids together increase the risks of renewed cases of measles, etc., and lowers herd immunity (4) Knowingly endangering others (or possibly endangering others), or refusing legitimate safeguards or actions which serve to protect others, all have moral implications.
If your church taught against vaccines and I put my vaccinated kids in services with the many unvaccinated kids that inhabit some churches, and my kids got sick due to decreased herd immunity...I believe there is a moral element involved. My kids were exposed because of you. You have compromised my safety and the safety of my children. It is similar (though not the same) as if your child was enrolled in a daycare and you knowingly admitted your child to daycare even though the child had the flu.
There is a moral element involved, whether you take offense or not and whether the danger is very great or just medium. You have decreased my safety somewhat. Therefore, there is that question concerning the morality of decreasing someone else's safety somewhat.
If 10 million parents decided not to vaccinate their children, then rates of disease would sky-rocket. Children would then die unnecessarily. That is unethical if you were part of the cause.
We may disagree as to the DEGREE in which there is a moral element to this debate (especially since there are other factors involved, such as those Merck vaccines created from those cell lines procured from those two past abortions several decades ago). But I assert that there is some moral element involved in public health debates, because we share a society and your actions impact the lives of others.
It is, therefore, permissible to discuss this topic's moral and ethical implications. The ethics of both vaccinating as well as refusing to vaccinate should remain as part of this discussion.
Ironically, both sides of this debate could assert that there are possible 6th Commandment violations at play for the other side, both (1) if we view vaccines created from cell lines first procured through the use of aborted embryos, as well as (2) if we support actions which publicly endanger the herd immunity of others by refusing to be vaccinated. I have researched this topic not only because my wife was in public health, but also because there is no escaping the ethical implications of this issue. It is not merely a menu choice like Coke or Pizza or a matter of taste or preference....whatever you choose to do impacts others and has ethical ramifications. We might as well admit that this questions involves ethics and how we love others.
Even if some studies proved (which they don't seem to) that vaccinations increase the autism rate, there is still the question of "In a shared society, do these slight individual risks to my child outweigh the larger societal benefits of mass immunity and mass vaccination?" I would say that if you asked parents in the 30s, 40s and 1950's this question as it pertained to polio, they would almost 100% agree that any risks posed by polio vaccines were worth it if it meant that the scourge of polio could be stopped.
http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/health-answers/why-unethical-opt-out-measles-vaccination-your-child/
