Slippery Slope

The long arm of government intrusion in our lives, especially health care, keeps getting longer. In New York, health care workers are REQUIRED to get the flu shot or lose their jobs. They have no choice, rights stripped away! Health officials now have authority to quarantine and force vaccination in case of an outbreak. There are no specific definitions of an "outbreak."

But what really bothers me is the recent conviction of a couple in the Wausau area for reckless homicide of their 11 year old daughter. The girl had undiagnosed diabetes and the parents chose to treat her with prayer. The girl died and the parents were prosecuted for neglecting their child.

Reports state the illness is very treatable, thus the dilemma.

While I do not agree the parents made the right choice in type of treatment, but who am I to dictate what treatment these parents must choose. Or anyone else (especially the government) for that matter. It is unfortunate that the child died, but should the parents have been prosecuted?

I say no. And here is why:

The parents in this case did not ignore their child. They chose to actively treat her with prayer. The treatment failed. Had these parents gone the conventional path and treated her with medicine, and the child had a reaction and died, would they be prosecuted as well? Of course not. But why the double standard? If a medical treatment causes a death, the provider can be sued for malpractice, but no one would charge the parent with reckless behavior.

The underlying problem is medical treatment is being sanctioned as the only treatment acceptable for illness. If you don't get treated medically, and death occurs, you will be prosecuted for not using "State Approved" care. (Minnesota boy with leukemia being forced to undergo chemotherapy)

While the death of this child is tragic, the loss of personal freedom to choose the type of health care best for you is more tragic. These parents chose poorly, but not criminally. What is criminal is forced vaccination, giving mercury laced flu shots to pregnant mothers, and preventing truthful information on natural and alternative treatments to be given to the public.

A one year old recently died following a flu shot. The child had seizures after getting the 6 month vaccines, and died after getting the flu shot. Are these parents going to be convicted of reckless homicide for killing their child? They knew the child had a poor reaction to vaccines in the past, yet their child was injected again (against their wishes) and died. Since it was a medical procedure that failed, it is just a tragedy. Besides, the official report will claim it was just a coincidence anyway.

Don't give up your rights! Support freedom of choice in health care. Remember, the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. is not cancer or heart disease, it is medicine (errors, prescription drug interactions, surgery...). Medicine kills over 250,000 people every year!

Measles Outbreak

Recent news reports show an increase in the incidence of measles. the prevailing theme is to blame parents for not vaccinating their chidren due to an "unfounded" fear of autism. The interesting thing about these reports is they state, "nearly half of those infected were not vaccinated." Pretty scarry huh? But read that quote again...If nearly (less than) half were not vaccinated, then most (more than half) were fully vaccinated!

How is this possible? If the vaccine actually worked, then wouldn't the vast majority of measles cases occur in the un-vaccinated? The vaccine is supposed to keep you from getting measles isn't it? Yet most cases occured in the full vaccinated. Doctors try to blame the unvaccinated for bringing the disease from foreign countries and infecting the population here. Change the subject when you don't have an answer can be an effective technique.

As far as the unfounded fears of an autism link to the measles vaccine, there is no scientific proof linking the vaccine to autism, and there is also no scientific study that proves no link either. We do not have a definitive answer on this subject. However, the vast number of healthy, normal developing babies changing and showing signs and symptoms of autism shortly after receiving a dose of MMR cannot be ignored. The major problem with most vaccine studies, is the lack of a control group to compare reactiions to. A retrospective study comparing a vaccinated population to an unvaccinated population in similar environments for autism and other auto-immune disorder rates would be very simple to do. the big question is, why has this not been done.

I am not against vaccination, but I do oppose forced and mandatory vaccination. Forcing parents with scare tactics to inject a chemical soup that has no long term safety or efficacy studies done is just plain wrong! We must have the freedom to choose. The government must not have the right to force any medical procedure on any person.