A G K Y R A

I watched a few minutes of the Today show over breakfast this morning and was alarmed by a story about parents who don’t want their children to receive mandatory vaccinations against such infectious diseases as chickenpox, whooping cough, and measles–and who lie to get around the law by claiming that they have religious scruples against using vaccines. MSNBC.com also has an article about it, in which they talk to a real live parent, Sabrina Rahim, who lied about her religious beliefs.

I just want to make two points about this. First about how we should react to the outbreak of lying parents. We shouldn’t respond to this kind of unethical and selfish behavior with a wink. Ms. Rahim, like very many people today, doesn’t appreciate the gravity of the law or the sanctity of genuine religious belief, especially when it comes to those few cases in which the law makes exceptions for people who have genuine religious scruples. Exceptions to the law based on a person’s religious scruples are precious to a free society and almost unheard of in the history of the world until very recently. To protect those exceptions for people who have a genuine legal right to them, we need to condemn those who abuse the law by lying about their religious beliefs. They’re playing fast and loose with something that is precious and hard won by its legitimate beneficiaries. No doubt they have the best intentions for their own children. It’s just too bad they’re heedless about how their choices might affect others. There is always, in my experience, someone who takes advantage of the system to the long-term harm of everyone else.

Second about the question of whether to vaccinate your child. It seems that there’s concern about vaccinations causing autism and other learning disabilities, which is why Ms. Rahim and some others want to get around the law. Sure, so long as everyone else is having his child vaccinated, you can have your cake and eat it too. If everyone else is vaccinated, there’s virtually no chance of an outbreak, so your son is protected on that basis. Plus, by not having him vaccinated, you deal with your fear that he might become autistic as a result of it. But this is exactly how many litterers and other public nuisances think. One additional piece of paper on the ground doesn’t make much difference to the overall environment, does it? No, but the problem is that everyone is thinking that way, and so everyone is throwing his trash on the ground. It’s the same sentiment as, “I don’t want my son to become a soldier/police officer/firefigher — he might get killed!” Yes, he might. But courage is the virtue that overcomes such fears, and if none of us has any courage, what is to become of us? What if everyone else didn’t want his son to become a police officer for fear of his getting killed. We’d have no police force!

This is where Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative comes in: you should act in such a way that you would wish everyone would act. It’s a lot like the Golden Rule, but with this twist: do unto everyone else as you would have everyone else do unto everyone else. You don’t want everyone throwing their trash on the ground, do you? Then don’t you throw your trash on the ground. So let me ask these parents who are keeping their children unvaccinated whether they would want all children to go unvaccinated? Were we better off back when whooping cough might kill you and chickenpox might disfigure you? Is the link between vaccines and learning disabilities anything more than speculation? We know that if we all stop vaccinating, these diseases will come back with a vengeance. Should we welcome them back just to see whether the incidence of autism might be lower 30 years further on?

This is the ethical decision parents face: if, on the one hand, you think all children should be unvaccinated, and that’s the world you want to live in, lobby your legislators to have the law changed that requires all children to be vaccinated. Don’t manufacture some phony religious beliefs. On the other hand, if you don’t prefer to live in a world where measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, and so on are common, then take the slim risk that vaccines could lead to a learning disability–that much is your duty to everyone else.

Technorati Tags: vaccine vaccines vaccinations immunizations children parents parenting ethics public+health disease

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)

Today is Blog Action Day on the environment, which means that lots and lots of bloggers are going to be writing on that topic. I’ve been too busy to write much of anything lately but thought I could spare a few words.

Probably very few people would actually wish to damage the natural condition of the world. But the rhetoric of discourse about the environment sets up an opposition between environmental responsibility and industry — particular industries or industrial practices — which is threatening to investors and workers in those industries. They don’t want to damage our natural environment, but they also don’t want to incur costs or lose their jobs over nothing, especially when scientists are not of one mind about whether, just to give one example, global warming is actually happening, and even if it is, whether it’s just part of a normal and natural cycle.

I don’t have an informed opinion about global warming. I also can’t say what environmental responsibility would look like in this or that case, but I do want to remind us Christians that we ought to take a strong stand in promoting it. Christians ought to be concerned about the environment because it’s God’s world we’re living in, and humankind was originally made to be, of all things, gardeners. There will continue to be plenty of good jobs and investment opportunities. And promoting environmental responsibility doesn’t mean capitulating to the broader political agenda of one group or another.

If you’re a business or residential customer of ConEdison (New York City area), you can choose your own energy supplier. ConEdison will continue to invoice you, but however much energy you use each month is how much they will bring into the grid from the supplier of your choice. My wife and I pay a little more for it, but our energy is generated entirely by New York State wind and run-of-the-river hydropower.

Technorati Tags: environment conedison christianity