An Open Letter to Legislators on Immunization Policy and Parental Rights

June 24, 2008

We the undersigned are writing to express our opposition to government mandated medical treatment on healthy children that could result in serious injury, chronic illnesses or death and affirm our support for defending civil liberties, which includes parental rights and informed consent regarding vaccinations.

As concerned citizens, medical professionals, national and state organizations and members of the scientific community, we recognize the benefits of vaccinations, however question the wisdom of mass, mandatory “one size fits all” vaccination policies dictated by a small group of unaccountable bureaucrats who often have close ties to vaccine manufacturers and are not elected by the public.

Twenty-five years ago, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommended children receive 23 doses of 7 vaccines. Today, the CDC recommends infants and children receive 48 doses of 14 vaccines by age six and a total of 69 doses of 16 vaccines are given by the age of 18. In spite of extremely high vaccination coverage, America’s children are among the sickest compared to other developed countries. A plethora of published peer-review research suggests vaccines and/or vaccine ingredients can contribute to chronic diseases, including cancer, autoimmune and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Concerns about the ingredients and current number of vaccines recommended for infants and children are growing among parents, physicians and scientists. Vaccines are tested on an individual basis and therefore the safety of vaccines given in combination with each other is not established.

Health officials advising legislators about the benefits of vaccinations often cite dire predictions of hypothetical disease outbreaks or relatively small incidences of outbreaks as justification for usurping parental rights and pressure lawmakers to adopt new legislation aimed at eliminating vaccination exemptions.

Current efforts to enact laws that would require every new vaccine recommended by industry-influenced members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are based on reports of 64 cases of measles in 11 states. Of these 64 cases, there were only 14 hospitalizations and no deaths. What legislators are not told is that out of the over 40 million children, hundreds of thousands of which are not vaccinated, only one case of measles was reported in four of the 11 states and only three states had more than 10 cases.

No medical intervention is risk-free. Each child is an individual with unique strengths and vulnerabilities. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has awarded over 2 billion dollars in the past 20 years to victims who suffered debilitating illnesses, “brain injuries” and death following vaccinations. In November 2007, government medical experts conceded the vaccines given to a nine year-old girl aggravated a cell disorder resulting in permanent brain damage and “autistic-like symptoms”.

We believe the decision to vaccinate, or not, should be a choice reserved for parents who know their children best and who will be responsible for the consequences caused by vaccine preventable diseases or adverse vaccine reactions rather than legislators or health officials who will not bear the pain or burden of their decisions.

Freedom, which would include freedom from medical tyranny, is the foundation upon which this nation was formed and is the cornerstone principle of a democratic society. All but two states allow religious exemptions to vaccinations. Eighteen states have exemptions based on philosophical, personal or conscientious beliefs. Medical exemptions are available in all 50 states. States with these exemptions have no demonstrable difference in either vaccine uptake or incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases compared to states without exemptions. Weighing the risk of disease verses the risk of a serious adverse vaccine reaction must be based on the individual and decided by parents. Legislators have both a moral and legal responsibility to protect parents’ constitutional rights.  Forced vaccination policies enacted based on hypothetical fear campaigns are unjustified and un-American.

Parents who wish to follow all vaccination recommendations have the freedom to do so. We believe American parents have a responsibility to protect their children and should maintain the right to decide what, if any, vaccines their children should receive, not the government.

On behalf of the citizens we represent and for the reasons contained in this letter, we encourage you to reject any legislation that would authorize medical totalitarianism and the termination of parental rights to make informed decisions about their child’s medical treatment and support vaccination exemptions based on personal, philosophical, and conscientious beliefs.