The Croatian constitutional court has made the vaccination of children a legal obligation. Their reasoning behind this law is that “a child’s right to health is more important than a parent’s right to choose (wrongly)”. Their words, not mine, although I do agree.
Vaccination has been a part of paediatric care in Croatia for years, and children have regularly been vaccinated throughout their education, although it has never before been officially mandatory. Now, parents have the potential of being prosecuted if they do not to vaccinate their children. In Croatia, children are vaccinated against the following: tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTaP), polio, measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), and hepatitis B. It was always said that vaccination was mandatory, but whenever I asked what to do with unvaccinated children, I was given vague answers. Nevertheless, the law now states that a parent’s failure to ensure the vaccination of their child will result in a fine and a visit from social services. A large group of parents, accompanied with some medical professionals, disagree with this and have called for a public discussion.
“Nobody wants to take the responsibility.”
This is an argument many parents have repeated when asked why they don’t want their children vaccinated. The majority of “modern” parents are best pals with Doctor Google, who has told them stories about apparently unnerving side effects of certain vaccinations. Furthermore, media dramatization and sensationalism add another factor in the vaccine debate. Although the Internet and media in general can provide strong patient education, it can also provide highly biased information thereby providing harmfully improper patient education. Even though they are dramatic and stand out, articles reporting on a child developing a long term and/or life changing disorder or condition are quite rare. Reading such an article invokes fear in readers. Statistics are what matter in possible negative outcomes. How many stories about serious problems arising from a vaccinations exist? And how many children are vaccinated every day? And what are measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, and the other diseases like when they take hold of a child’s body?
Understandably, parents want to protect their children and don’t want their little ones to suffer any life changing side effects, short or long term. Before allowing for any vaccination, they want doctors to tell them with absolute certainty that no harm will come to their children from a vaccine. Surely parents would also like completely safe transport, but they are willing to put their children in a car, train, or plane because of the benefits of fast travel outweigh the small chance of an accident happening. It is impossible to expect doctors to claim that anything is completely safe, and “take responsibility“ if anything at all goes wrong. This is why there are patient consent forms and small directions in all medication boxes explaining possible side effects. If a parent asked me whether I would take responsibility for any possible side effects of vaccination, I would reply with another question: Would you, as a parent, take the responsibility of your child getting an infectious disease that could leave them with life changing consequences, or even possibly be a cause of death?
Although I would try and talk to people who refuse vaccination, if they continued to refuse I would respect their decision. In the end, I appreciate it is your right to decide what you want to do with your body. A friend of mine has pointed out to me that this law might limit the right of choice; therefore not allowing parents to make a choice about their children. I can see his point, and as I said, everyone should have the right to decide what to do with their body. However, this is a choice parents aren’t making about themselves, but about their children, who are too young to make an informed choice. Are their parents making an informed choice though? Do they have enough information to go against medical advice? Many countries don’t have a law about mandatory vaccination, and maybe those fighting against this law will manage to win, but I hope this whole debate will at least raise awareness and make people think about the importance of vaccination.
Featured photo courtesy of zsoolt
