Should Parents Have a Moral Right to Choose?

(Chapter Two)

When you have been through a difficult experience you always want to know, "Why?" I think many parents have not known what their child experienced was, in deed, a reaction to a vaccine. Vaccines time release and the ingredients in the vaccines continue to do their work hours, days and potentially years after injected. What affects they have on our bodies over time are being questioned. We are being told to hurry up and get it done but what we are saying is, "Now wait a minute. What will it do to my body? What will it do to my child’s body? Why are you in such a hurry and why are you pressuring me? I thought I had the right to choose what medical care I receive or don’t receive. Why does that change with vaccinations?”

In my next article (Chapter 3) I am going to share a little bit about what my family has been through but right now I want to equip you with information to help you if you have experienced a reaction to a vaccine in your family. I wish I knew about these resources while going through my situations.

If you or your child has encountered a reaction to a vaccine I encourage you to report your case directly. Do not wait for your doctor to do it. Go to the National Vaccine Information Center at http://nvic.org/Report/Reaction06.htm and report your case. Parents need to make known to the FDA what is going on. By reporting the reactions directly, we ensure accurate reporting.

Medical doctors may not report the reactions because they have been trained to enforce them. On the NVIC website you will find a link to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). You may go directly to that site and read more about it at www.vaers.hhs.gov. It is a centralized reporting system that was developed by U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.

As NVIC states:

VAERS was set up to identify unusual events that may indicate a "hot lot" or contaminated lot of vaccine that could trigger a recall. Trends may be identified based on the type of reaction, permanent injuries and death reports. If the FDA does their job, your report could prevent another child from reacting. VAERS receives between 12-14,000 reports per year.

I encourage you to get informed about what is going on this issue. We cannot assume everyone is watching out for our children. Though I would like to believe in humanity; I know other motivations can be playing in the role of pushing forced vaccinations. If you read the following articles you will capture a glimpse of why I say this. The Hepatitis B Vaccine is an example of this. Hepatitis B is contracted through sex, so why is a newborn baby being forced to receive Hepatitis B vaccines? Why are they being forced upon children in grade school? We need to start asking why and not back down!

Here are some interesting links for you to read:

“Hepatitis B Vaccine: The Untold Story” http://nvic.org/Diseases/Hepatitis_B.htm

“Jail Time for Not Vaccinating in Maryland” (http://nvic.org/JailMD.htm) by Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder of the National Vaccine Institute Center and author of “A Shot in the Dark.” http://nvic.org/Loe_Fisher/blfinsight.htm.

I will share an excerpt from “Hepatitis B Vaccine: The Untold Story”

Citizens Make Plea for Informed Consent - Before testifying at a Board of Health public hearing held in Springfield on March 26, 1998, NVIC held a press conference in the State Capitol building. Then, along with scores of Illinois parents who traveled to Springfield to make public comment, NVIC President Barbara Loe Fisher, Reverend Robert VandenBosch, President of the American Research Foundation, and Bonnie Dunbar, Ph.D., professor of cell biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, presented formal testimony.

Fisher told the Board of Health "There is a six year old girl named Katherine lying in a bed in Skokie, Illinois unable to lift her head off her pillow or walk to the bathroom. Just 13 weeks ago, Katherine was an ice skater with boundless energy and a dream of going to the Olympics. Her mother didn't want her to get the hepatitis B shot but her pediatrician told her it was a political issue like AIDS and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was going to mandate the vaccine soon.

Katherine got that hepatitis B shot and now she may never skate again. Where were her informed consent rights? And where will the doctors from the state health department and the CDC and the AAP be when her mother carries her up the stairs to the bathroom? And will the state of Illinois pay her medical bills when her insurance runs out after DHHS and the Justice Department oppose giving her federal compensation?" During limited public comment time, all of the parents asked the Board of Health to allow citizens to follow the judgement of their conscience when making vaccination decisions for their children, including the right to exercise informed consent to vaccination without suffering harassment and punishment at the hands of state health and school officials. Some, like a young man who was kicked out of an Illinois college in the middle of the semester because of his sincere religious beliefs, asked for the right to follow his religious convictions without being punished by doctors employed by the state. He said:

"They have refused to give me credit for this semester and have told me not to attend class and have cancelled my appointment with my advisors. I applied for a religious exemption. Both my parents wrote letters identifying my objection. We were refused on the grounds that, in order for a religious exemption to occur, I must identify 'a recognized church or religious organization.' I don't believe that anyone has a right to judge my religion. How does recognition of my belief by another human being make it more or less? I am confused by the word 'organized.' How does the number of people or the structure under which they operate validate my beliefs? This is a violation of my Constitutional right to religious freedom."

Rev. Robert VandenBosch, an ethicist, warned that "The First Amendment [of the U.S. Constitution] clearly defines the free exercise of religious beliefs and the moral rights of individuals to obey the judgement of their conscience in matters of life and death. The Ninth Amendment of the Constitution guarantees that governmental authority cannot override individual rights of conscience. It states: 'The enumeration of the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.' One of the rights retained by the people is the right of conscience."

In one of Barbara L. Fisher’s articles she revealed, “The University of California study, published by the U.S Dept. of Education in 1996, founded that the proportion of the U.S. State can take away in the name of the greater good.”

REALLY? Let me ask this, “For who’s greater good?” So I am suppose to look at my child in the eyes and tell him, “You are going to have the shot despite having had reactions, because the law says it is for the greater good of those who are around you. Never mind your well being.”

As Barbara L. Fisher says, "Whether the child is harmed by a vaccine or a disease it is the mother and father---not the pediatrician, vaccine maker, or public health officials who bear the lifelong grief and burden of what happens to their child.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being seen as just a number. I don’t like my right to freedom of choice being taken from me either.

Are you okay with that?
Natalie