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This has been on my mind for years. Should parents who refuse to vaccinate their children be charged with child abuse if their child dies of complications of measles, meningitis, polio, pertussis, RSV? These parents are making life-altering choices for their children. The children have no opportunity to consent. Their parents are their protectors.
Often, these “anti-vaxxers” have been vaccinated themselves by their own responsible parents. The anti-vaxxer parents have never witnessed the life-altering effects of polio. They have never seen children die of the measles. Older adults have witnessed all of these horrible results.
If any parent had their child develop a life-threatening reaction to a vaccination, they would be first to sue the pharmaceutical company.
Would anti-vaxxer parents be able to live the rest of their lives knowing that their child died of a communicable disease for which a vaccination was available and they opted not to have it administered? The death of a child is devastating, but the death of a child caused by parents’ refusal to protect him/her is, in my opinion, unconscionable.
Linda Boyle
Newmarket
