Hypocrisy or for the Greater Good?

[Trillian]

I've been stuck by yet another ethical dilemma LOL. I have always brought Sunrice rice because 1 it is supporting a local economy (even though I don't agree with rice being grown in this area due to irrigation etc but that's another issue LOL) and 2 it is Australian grown and owned etc, but yesterday on the pack I brought I noticed that Sunrice is a sponsor of the UNICEF Pacific Islands Child Immunisation Program. Now the issue is that I don't believe that immunisation is right for my children, yet I buy a product that is helping to immunise Island children. I rationalise this as being that these kids generally aren't as healthy, nor do they have easy access to health facilities if they do get sick, not to mention that the illnesses they are vaccinating against has far worse implications than it does for children in developed countries and children of anglo-heritage (Indigenous children are also at greater risk of complications from chicken pox and measles etc too) so mass vaccinations really are needed for these kids, or is that just being hypocritical?

[AnyDream]

Trill, I guess you have the luxury of chosing not to vaccinate knowing that you have access to appropriate medical treatment should your well nourished kids who drink clean water become ill with an infectious disease. I don't see this as hypocritical at all. If you were a parent living on one of those pacific islands with a high rate of child mortality you may well choose to vaccinate your children...or not...the circumstances are completely different and so the decisions made would be completely different too. I don't see any ethical dilemma here at all.

Don't get me started though on rice grown with River Murray water...! I'm from SA and so have very biased opinions on the matter LOL.

[Jess]

Surely it's good to make the immunisations available? That way parents in the Pacific Islands can make the choice (though I guess they are less likely to have access to the information that might make Western parents choose not to vaccinate, so some might say that's not really a choice). Still, I think that childhood immunisations in these countries are a good thing overall... they can worry about the potential for raising the risk of chronic conditions when their child mortality rate from infectious disease is lower...