Do You Think Childhood Vaccinations Should Be Compulsory?

[Trillian]

I have to put it out there - how would you feel if your non-immunised child got something like measles and passed it on to a friends 6 week old baby before you even knew they had it? Imagine if that little baby didn't survive it because they weren't as strong as your 6 or 7 year old (or whatever age) child... Would you be able to forgive yourself?

I'd be more devastated if one of my vaccinated children (I do have fully and partially vaccinated children) passed on something like that simply because I falsely believed that they were immunised.

The thing is, immunisations are not full protection. Their effectiveness can weaken over time so how do you know that your supposedly vaccinated children aren't the ones spreading the disease/illness to the weak and compromised? If anything, this utopian idea of immunisation can cause people to be careless because they assume that once the injection has been given, that it is OK, their children are fine to be around immunosuppressed people and that they will never catch, nor pass on illness, but the reality is that they may be no safer around these children than those who have never had a vaccination in their life. It is a rather poor reason to force compulsory vaccination on people.

ETA - when you think about it, what is the point of vaccinations anyway? You have them, but how many have ever taken themselves or their children back to test to see how effective they were? If the Govt planned to introduce mandatory vaccinations to reduce or completely eradicate diseases, there would be a bigger push towards booster shots for ALL vaccinations and routine testing to check for effectiveness otherwise the entire exercise is pointless.

SO back to the topic it still comes down to what your rights are as a parent, and as several have said, no matter which side you sit on, you have to support the right of the parents to choose. It is easy to agree with it if it is something you agree with already, but what if this progresses further? Where does it end?