Janet Ebsen

There are indeed many, many aspects of life in which individuals should be free to follow their own conscience without government interference. This freedom must be balanced, though, against the harm the individual might do to others. First of all, the child: children cannot make their own decisions. It's important that the state put guardrails around parental decisions in order to protect children. We don't allow parents to physically harm their children with fists; neither should we allow parents to harm their children with medical negligence. Denying a child medical care to prevent life-changing (or life-ending) illnesses must be seen for the medical neglect it is. Secondly, the community is a whole is harmed when a substantial number of people opt out of vaccines. Vaccines require broad adoption to be effective (sometimes called "herd immunity"). This allows others-- children too young to be vaccinated, seniors with weakened immune systems, and so on-- to be protected from severe illness or death. This is an essential responsibility to one another as members of a community.