Tug of Love - Doctor vs Parent
I carried my children in my belly for 9 long months - all the while dreaming about who they would be and thinking and planning about how to give them the best possible life. I loved them from the moment I knew I was pregnant and I know that my husband did too. Over the years, we have spent thousands of hours researching schools, health, diet, environment and everything else that might affect them either for better or for worse. We don't begrudge one second of this time and would spend 100 times as long if it would mean that our children would be even one little bit healthier or happier. There is nothing more precious to us in this world then our kids and I know that you feel the same way about your children too.
The love a parent feels for their child is like no other love in the world. We love our parents, our siblings and our partners, but we really, really LOVE our children. It is an overwhelming, all-encompassing emotion and it would see us gladly give our lives so that they can live - I can't think of anyone else I would die for but I would die for any one of my children without even thinking twice.
But this bond - this responsibility - is being denigrated by our government and our medical community who insist time and time again that when it comes down to it, they really love our children more than we do and if we choose to do something they don't approve of, they will solve the 'problem' by taking our children away from us and doing it anyway. (Go to your room right now young lady! And no dinner, breakfast, or babies until you agree to do as we say. After all, we have your family's best interests at heart - you don't!)
Last night, I was interviewed by radio station 6PR in Perth about a family who was forced - against their religious, philosophical and religious beliefs - to get their newborn vaccinated against Hepatitis B because the mother was Hep B positive. The vaccination does not guarantee protection from infection nor is it 100% safe since many tens of thousands of reports of serious reactions and deaths have been reported following this shot. Two of them are in our web gallery - Lyla Rose Belkin and Robert. There are many, many more on our adverse reactions database including fit and healthy adults who took this vaccine for work and have been permanently disabled as a result.
The interviewer actually said that he felt the doctor who got the court order and the judge who made the order care more about the welfare of this baby then their parents!
It's fine to disagree about what the best steps to take when a mother who is Hep B positive gives birth to a baby. Life is full of risks and it is a parent's job to reduce those risks as much as possible. The problem emerges when the government, the courts and the medical system decide that they know more and care more about a particular child than their loving parents do. This is not a situation where a child is being physically or emotionally abused; where their parents are starving them to death, tying them up for 24 hours a day or not providing them with an education. This is a situation where - on the word of ONE doctor - a court has ordered that a child be vaccinated against a disease that they may or may not contract with a vaccine that may or may not protect them but which has a chance of not only permanently injuring but killing them as well.
In a case like this, it must ALWAYS be the parent's right to have the final say. Neither the doctor, the hospital nor the judge will be responsible for the care of this child should the worst thing happen and they become permanently injured. So it is not the right of the doctor, hospital or judge to order that this medical procedure be administered.
Public health policy in QLD states that the vaccine is to be 'offered' but that parents have the right to say no. So why do the courts feel that they have an option to take away that right?
Here is the interview if you want to download it and here is a link to the 6PR website where you can listen to it online and leave comments.
What do you think? Whose responsibility should it be to care for children - the parents, the courts, the government or a single doctor? Please let us know. Remember - no swearing, foul language or personal attacks will be moderated but considered comments are very welcome.