Vaccination exemption in CA, personal down, medical up

[Bob Kelso]

No, I wouldn't say they are culpable for their child's death. They made a foolish decision that made their child vulnerable to the disease, yes, and unfortunately as bad luck would have it, the child caught the disease.

But I don't see not giving a vaccine as an intrinsically dangerous thing to do, in and of itself.

*My emphasis*

I separated this for emphasis. Seriously though, CL, do you not see the problem here? Isn't it intrinsically dangerous not to safeguard your children against something that could kill them?

This isn't about a "foolish decision" this is about actively turning one's nose up at the fact that if you don't vaccinate your children *by choice* you are needlessly throwing them to the bacterial/viral wolves. We're talking neglectful and downright abusive levels of stupidity and willful ignorance.

It's like the boy in Orlando who was splashing around in a pond of alligators (despite do not swim signs) and got killed by one of them. Obviously if the parents had taken the precaution and kept him away from the pond, this wouldn't have happened. But I don't hold them culpable because splashing around in a pond isn't an inherently harmful thing. I wouldn't equate it to a child playing with fire or walking off a ravine while the parents sat there and watched, because those things are inherently very dangerous. Sometimes parents make stupid decisions and then pay for them when something happens to their child.

Where do we draw the line between poor judgement and crime? I don't think not giving a vaccine should be a crime.

I should think we would draw the line where one's "poor judgement" is killing your children or bringing waves of disease that we had put the kibosh on back into the fray. But I suppose that's not reasonable. 🙄