[PedOncoDoc]

Originally Posted by JJ_BPK

Doc,

I do not disagree with your points. There are vast numbers of ilinformed & uninformed peoples out there,, Many are current and future Darwin Award Winners..

I am more interested in why some, all, many think this activity has to be legislated.

If mandatory vaccinations are law,

Do we jail people that refuse to sign organ donor cards?

Is someone rejecting a hospitals DNR also a felon?

Does the person who prefers holistic medicine for their cancer belong in jail?

If it's not obvious, I tend to be in the Libertarian boat,, on certain subjects..

Mandatory legislation of medicine is one such topic..

This is an issue near and dear to my heart. As a children's cancer and bone marrow transplantation specialist, I have patients with profoundly compromised immune systems that cannot receive their vaccines and would likely have extremely severe (possibly fatal) complications from infection from what is by-and-large a completely preventable disease.

I am dreading the day one of my patients - who relies solely on herd immunity (infection prevention through mass vaccination to protect the few who cannot receive or respond to a vaccine) - dies as the result of exposure to a vaccine-preventable infection from the child of an anti-vaxxer. I would push hard for manslaughter charges against the family that did not choose to vaccinate their child, along with a massive civil lawsuit. If it came out that they knew their non-vaccinated child was exposed to measles or another vaccine-preventable infection and did not self-impose quarantine, one could reasonably push for additional criminal charges.

80% of all children who are diagnosed with cancer will be long-term survivors - it would be a shame for some child to go through chemotherapy, radiation and/or immunotherapy only to die because someone refuses to vaccinate their child.

Rant off.