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In grade 9, my class and I were told we were all to receive our Hepatitis B vaccination.  I went to a big high school in Vancouver, and there were several hundred of us who were to be injected on the same day.  We were ushered into the gymnasium single-file, and as my turn approached, I just had a feeling of doubt and discomfort about the prospect.  I had never been exposed to any anti-vaccination ideas before at all.  My mother had dutifully taken me for all my childhood shots, and if she ever had concerns or questions about vaccine safety, these were never voiced.  But on that day in grade nine, while standing in line, I realized that the process of having a substance–any substance, but especially one whose fundamental properties were unfamiliar to me–injected into my body, sounded unappealing.  Off, somehow.  So I ducked out of the line, and went to the coffee shop across the street (which is pretty much how I spent the remainder of my high school career).

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I haven’t been vaccinated since, (except for rhogam, or winrho, after a couple of my births, because I have an rh- blood type–but I don’t take that anymore either, under any circumstances, and I’ll talk about why in an upcoming post).

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It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my first child that I really began to delve into the subject of vaccination.  I read widely on the topic, from mainstream & scientific literature, and also from material that questioned and critiqued vaccination, much of it written by respected physicians, whom are nonetheless roundly ridiculed by vaccine enthusiasts.  It seems that doctors are credible and learned and respected until they question the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, which by definition destroys their credibility.  Huh.

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Interestingly, the trump for vaccine devotees is inevitably the herd immunity card: the idea that unless you and I have our children vaccinated, we will be threatening “herd immunity” which is unassailably in place as long as 80% or 90% (whatever number is pulled out of the hat) of the population is vaccinated.

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The rationale for herd immunity is ostensibly partly due to the fact that no vaccine is 100% effective, which sounds mighty circular to me, but anyway.  There are many articulate and sensible and science & evidence-based arguments for why herd immunity in a vaccinated population is a specious and misconstrued idea, but I won’t take that on here.  Yours to google.

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Fine, say those who are pro-vaccine.  Maybe you don’t care if *your* child dies from whooping cough.  But it is immoral for you to endanger *my* child, and *my* community.  Be a citizen.

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This attitude frightens me.  Nevermind the widely acknowledged fact that every vaccine carries some risk, including death– this warning is, after all, included in the insert from the manufacturer of every vaccine.  And never mind that vaccine manufacturers have paid out billions of dollars to families who have won cases in court based on the harm that was proven to have been done to their children by vaccines.

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 Apart from all of this, my only real argument, (and I genuinely can not envision that anyone could possibly seriously object to this), is that it is completely unethical for a free human being to be forced or coerced into receiving an invasive, prophylactic treatment for a disease that may only potentially be harmful, or terminal.

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My responsibility to *your* child and to my community stops at my epidermis.

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I vow to do everything I can to protect the herd.  I promise not to poison the well.  I promise not to commit murder.  And despite the fundamental flaws in our governments, I pay my taxes and support the social safety net.  But my responsibility to you ends at my body.

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Similarly, I will (and do) do everything I possibly can, within the scope of my own moral framework, to protect my children from disease and death.  But I will not medicate them prophylactically.  And this choice, however distressing to “the herd”, must be the prerogative of the individual.

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Being human cannot be the grounds  for forced treatment.  Being a person is not tacit consent for preventative medication.

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As I have said so many times before, the right to bodily integrity *must* be the foundation of a just society.

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Whether or not you believe I am stupid & misinformed, and whether or not you are convinced that my insistence on keeping my body and the bodies of my children unadulterated is a personal risk to you and your kids, you must accept my choice.  Anything less is a fascist dystopian nightmare that I sincerely hope we can all recognize as being worse than the inevitability of death, which so far, vaccines have yet to alleviate.