Abstract

This piece focusses on the issue of parents who opt not to have their children immunised against such childhood diseases as polio, measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatisis B, diphtheria, and chicken pox. In some communities in the United States, like Washington's Vashon Island, as many as 18% of the parents of primary school students have chosen to legally exclude their children from vaccination. (Across the United States, approximately 1% of children are exempt from vaccinations). Some of these parents cite health problems among neighbours' children that they attribute to vaccinations; others have won "philosophical exemptions" (based on alignment with alternative medical approaches, for example); while still others are motivated by distrust in government or commitment to certain religious beliefs). Health officials respond with worries of the danger posed to unvaccinated children themselves, as well as to those with weakened immune systems who are at risk of being infected by those who have not been vaccinated. In the words of one of these officials, few of these objectors consider that "what I do to my child can put other children at risk." One school nurse responds as follows: "I still feel strongly that it's the parents' choice."

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