My opinion on vaccines and the anti-vax movement is pretty well established. I think anti-vaxxers are conspiracy theory idiots. Yet even idiots have rights.

There’s legislation in Trenton that will strip away parental rights and allow 14-year-olds to decide for themselves if they want to be vaccinated. Even if the parent does not want them to be. Of course we all see this as an end run around the anti-vaxxer parent who puts their own twisted and flawed belief system on the child. This could also impact the parent who generally does believe in vaccines but simply doesn’t want their child to be among the very first to try a brand new vaccine being pushed by a doctor.

Also this could eventually open the door for other medical decisions to be made by a minor child. A parent wants a certain life-saving cancer treatment for a sick 14-year-old but the fearful child wants to try something unorthodox. A 15-year-old wants a weight loss procedure that the parent is not on board with. Where does it end? Like any of these, vaccines are a medical decision that should be left in the hands of the parent responsible for the minor child. This is a Pandora’s box the legislators are tinkering with. I don’t like the anti-vaxxer mentality either, but parental rights are more important.

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