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Last Wednesday morning, Prime minister Scott Morrison said that he would like to make coronavirus vaccination mandatory, if current trials are successful.
Following an outcry on social media, Mr Morrison backtracked later that day. “There’s been a bit of an overreaction to any suggestion of this – there will be no compulsory vaccine,” he said.
Vaccines have a long history dating back to the development of a vaccine against the smallpox virus in 1796.
We don’t hear much about smallpox these days. Last century, this dreadful disease killed some 300 million people.
Today, smallpox has been totally eliminated from the human population, thanks to an effective vaccine and a vigorous eradication program. Now, only a few small samples of the virus remain in high security laboratories. The vaccine is still being produced, in case of biological warfare.
Over the past century, dozens of vaccines have been produced for a wide range of bacterial and viral illnesses, including tetanus, diphtheria, polio, measles and mumps. We “moderns” have little understanding of the horrors such diseases inflicted in times past.
However, vaccines themselves can be dangerous. In the 1940s and 1950s, polio (or poliomyelitis) paralysed or killed over half a million globally every year. Dr Salk’s vaccine against this greatly feared disease was tested on 2 million children in 1954 and its success was widely hailed. But in 1955, a batch of vaccine produced by Cutter Laboratories was faulty. Some 200,000 US children received it; 40,000 caught polio, 200 were paralysed and 10 died. The fault was later corrected.
Vaccines can also be dangerous to people with certain pre-existing conditions. Contra-indications to vaccination are listed in the Australian Immunisation Handbook, for example.
Like all medical treatment, whether you should receive a vaccine against a specific disease is a question for you and your health professional. The doctor needs to weigh the expected benefit against the likely risk, given your personal medical history. You can either accept or decline the doctor’s advice.
This fundamental human right to give or refuse consent to medical treatment comes from the Christian faith. All people are made in the image of God and are accountable to him for their actions. To be accountable for actions to our own bodies, we must have freedom to decide whether to accept or reject possible treatment.
This is the origin of the common law offence of battery – intentional touching of another person that is harmful or offensive. A doctor must have a patient’s consent before doing anything with the patient’s body, such as giving an injection. A doctor who acts without consent runs the risk of being charged with battery.
Good medical practice in Australia requires doctors to obtain a patient’s informed consent before undertaking any examination or providing treatment (except in an emergency).
Consequently, any proposal to make vaccination mandatory conflicts with the person’s primary accountability to God. It denies a person’s freedom of conscience and is contrary to good medical practice. We pray that the Prime Minister keeps his word that there will be no compulsory vaccine.
Peter Downie
National Director - FamilyVoice Australia