Vaccination and religion 3972534 219996818 2008-06-17T20:25:56Z Eubulides 3573537 Omit details about FRC's supporting availability of HPV vaccines; see [[Talk:Vaccination and religion#FRC's opposition to vaccination]]. ==Historical== When [[vaccination]] was introduced into [[United Kingdom|UK]] public policy, and adoption followed overseas, there was opposition from both [[Protestant]] and [[Catholic]] churches. [[Image:Timothy-Dwight.png|thumb|right|Timothy Dwight]] For example, [[Timothy Dwight IV]], a [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]] minister and [[Yale]] university president, held that [[vaccination]] thwarted [[predestination|God's will]], saying: :If God had decreed from all eternity that a certain person should die of [[smallpox]], it would be a frightful sin to avoid and annul that decree by the trick of vaccination. Several [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] clergymen and devout physicians formed the Anti-vaccination Society in 1798, only two years after [[Edward Jenner|Jenner's]] publication of [[smallpox]] vaccination. Others complained that the practice was dangerous, going so far as to demand that doctors who carried out these procedures be tried for attempted murder.<ref>{{cite book |chapter= Theological opposition to inoculation, vaccination, and the use of anæsthetics |title= A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom |author= Andrew Dickson White |publisher=Appleton |year= 1896 |chapterurl=http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/whitem10.html |accessdate=2007-08-17}}</ref> ====Aims and results of the early movements==== In Massachusetts, the argument continued from that about [[variolation]], with a minority religious view strongly put that others should eschew immunization and accept the smallpox that God sent. [[Cotton Mather]] and other leaders favored efforts to prevent disease. In the USA, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was the first to make vaccination mandatory, in 1908[http://www.immunizationinfo.org/vaccineInfo/vaccine_detail.cfv?id=26]. In the [[United Kingdom|UK]], vaccination was provided free from 1840 under the Vaccination Act. In 1873, a further [[Vaccination/Vaccination acts|Vaccination Act]] made vaccination compulsory. Resistance to compulsion grew, and in 1885, after riots in [[Leicester]], a '''Royal Commission''' sat and reported 7 years later, recommending the abolition of cumulative penalties. This was accomplished in the '''1898''' Act, which also introduced a conscience clause, allowing parents who did not believe that vaccination was efficacious or safe to obtain exemption. This extended the concept of the "[[conscientious objector]]" in English law. <!-- see Talk and Hansard--> The aims of the protesters and organisations had thus been achieved in '''1898'''. {| class=wikitable border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center" width="90%" |- | align=left valign=middle | '''Name''' | align=left valign=middle | '''Started''' | align=left valign=middle | '''Finished''' | align=left valign=middle | '''Location''' | align=left valign=middle | '''Unique Proposition / Notes''' |- | align=left valign=middle | Anti-vaccination Society <!--the first a-v soc? Only one in the wordl that time? --> | align=left valign=middle | 1798 | align=left valign=middle | | align=left valign=middle | Boston USA | align=left valign=middle | Against the will of God |- | align=left valign=middle | Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League | align=left valign=middle | 1866 | align=left valign=middle | 1880 (segue) | align=left valign=middle | | align=left valign=middle | Mr. R. B. Gibbs (d. 1871) started it {{Fact|date=February 2007}}. Revived 1876, President: Rev. W. Hume-Rothery |- | align=left valign=middle |The Anti-Vaccination Society of America | align=left valign=middle |1879 | align=left valign=middle | | align=left valign=middle | | align=left valign=middle | |- | align=left valign=middle |New England Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League | align=left valign=middle |1882 | align=left valign=middle | | align=left valign=middle | | align=left valign=middle | |- | align=left valign=middle |Anti-Vaccination League of New York City | align=left valign=middle |1885 | align=left valign=middle | | align=left valign=middle | | align=left valign=middle | |- | align=left valign=middle | London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination | align=left valign=middle | 1880 | align=left valign=middle | 1896 (segue) | align=left valign=middle | Victoria Street, Westminster, London | align=left valign=middle | Secretary: Mr William Young. Adopted ''The Vaccination Inquirer'' (established 1879 by William Tebb) as the organ of the Society. Published:<li>14 "Vaccination Tracts" 1877 - completed by Dr Garth Wilkinson in 1879. <li>1879, "Vaccination Tracts" <li>1882 THE FABLE OF THE SMALL-POX HOSPITAL NURSES SAVED <li>FROM SMALL-POX BY RE-VACCINATION <li>April 1883 to March 1884, The Vaccination Inquirer Vol V (book) The movement grew {{Fact|date=February 2007}} and the London Society soon became national so reformed as ... |- | align=left valign=middle | The [[National Anti-Vaccination League]] | align=left valign=middle | 1896 (Feb) | align=left valign=middle | before 1970? | align=left valign=middle | England | align=left valign=middle | objectives:— repeal of the Vaccination Acts; disestablishment and disendowment of vaccination; abolition of all regulations in regard to vaccination as conditions of employment in State Departments or of admission to Educational or other Institutions.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Added in 1921:— vindication of the legitimate freedom of the subject in matters of medical treatment. |} ==Current== [[Islam]] and [[Judaism]], religions with dietary prohibitions which regard particular animals as unclean, make exceptions for medical treatments derived from those animals.<ref>"Drugs of Porcine Origin and Their Clinical Alternatives" 2004, retrieved as drugs-of-porcine-origin.pdf from http://www.npc.co.uk/med_partnership/assets/ on 15 September 2006</ref> <ref>WHO correspondence 17 July 2001, retrieved on 15 September 2006 from http://www.immunize.org/concerns/ as porcine.pdf</ref> In the early 2000s Islamic religious leaders in northern [[Nigeria]] advised their followers to not have their children vaccinated with oral polio vaccine. The boycott caused cases of polio to arise not only in Nigeria but also in neighboring countries. The followers were also wary of other vaccinations, and Nigeria reported over 20,000 measles cases and nearly 600 deaths from measles from January through March 2005.<ref name=Clements>{{cite journal |journal= Curr Drug Saf |volume=1 |issue=1 |date=2006 |pages=117–9 |title= How vaccine safety can become political – the example of polio in Nigeria |author= Clements CJ, Greenough P, Schull D |url=http://bentham.org/cds/samples/cds1-1/Clements.pdf |accessdate=2007-07-28 |doi= 10.2174/157488606775252575}}</ref> In 2006 Nigeria accounted for over half of all new polio cases worldwide.<ref>{{cite web |title= Wild poliovirus 2000–2008 |date=2008-02-05 |url=http://www.polioeradication.org/content/general/casecount.pdf |format=PDF |publisher= Global Polio Eradication Initiative |accessdate=2008-02-11}}</ref> Outbreaks continued thereafter; for example, at least 200 children died in a late-2007 measles outbreak in [[Borno State]].<ref>{{cite news |title= 'Hundreds' dead in measles outbreak |publisher=IRIN |date=2007-12-14 |url=http://irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75883 |accessdate=2008-02-10}}</ref> The Vatican Curia has expressed concern about the [[rubella]] vaccine's embryonic cell origin, saying Catholics have "a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines and to make a conscientious objection with regard to those which have moral problems."<ref name=Vatican>{{cite web |author= Pontifical Academy for Life |title= Moral reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human foetuses ||year=2005 |journal= Medicina e Morale |publisher=Center for Bioethics, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart |url=http://www.immunize.org/concerns/vaticandocument.htm |accessdate=2007-08-17}}</ref> The Vatican concluded that until an alternative becomes available it is acceptable for [[Catholic]]s to use the existing vaccine, writing, "This is an unjust alternative choice, which must be eliminated as soon as possible."<ref name=Vatican/> Some conservative U.S. Christian groups oppose mandatory vaccination for diseases typically spread via sexual contact, arguing that the possibility of disease deters risky sexual contact. For example, the [[Family Research Council]] opposes mandatory use of [[HPV vaccine|vaccines against the human papillomavirus]], writing, "Our primary concern is with the message that would be delivered to nine- to 12-year-olds with the administration of the vaccines. Care must be taken not to communicate that such an intervention makes all sex 'safe'."<ref>{{cite news |author= Danny Fortson |title= Moral majority take on GSK and Merck over cancer drugs |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article755931.ece |accessdate=2006-11-02 |date=2006-06-11 |work= The Independent}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/14/AR2006071401532.html |title= Pro-family, pro-vaccine—but keep it voluntary |author= Sprigg P |work= Washington Post |date=2006-07-15 |accessdate=2008-06-15}}</ref> == Exemptions == In the U.S., all but two states allow parents to opt out of their children's otherwise-mandatory vaccinations for religious reasons. The number of religious exemptions rose greatly in the late 1990s and early 2000s; for example, in Massachusetts, the rate of those seeking exemptions rose from 0.24% in 1996 to 0.60% in 2006. Some parents are falsely claiming religious beliefs in order to get exemptions, and some pediatricians are advising parents to lie on their applications.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-17-19819928_x.htm |date=[[2007-10-17]] |accessdate=2007-11-24 |author= LeBlanc S |title= Parents use religion to avoid vaccines |work= USA Today}}</ref> The [[American Medical Association]] opposes such exemptions, because they endanger not only the health of the individual child, but also the health of children in the child's group and the community at large.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ama-assn.org/apps/pf_new/pf_online?f_n=browse&doc=policyfiles/HnE/H-440.970.HTM |title= H-440.970 Religious exemptions from immunizations |publisher= [[American Medical Association]] |date=2007 |accessdate=2008-02-01}}</ref> == References == {{reflist|2}} {{Vaccines}} [[Category:Religious views]] [[Category:Vaccination]]