Vaccines and Abortion - Inconsistent Logic

[KCfromNC]

If you're not going to take a position I'm not sure how we can continue this conversation.

That I don't accept the position you're trying to force on me doesn't mean I haven't made my position clear.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

Non-Christian thought is full of logical inconsistencies. Here's just another example. Non-Christian thought usually champions these two values:

1. Absolute personal autonomy
2. Scientism

But these values come into conflict in two of the most controversial medical ethical issues of our time: vaccines and abortion.

Those who support "reproductive rights" will wave the flag of absolute personal autonomy. "My body, my choice." "Keep your laws off my ovaries." Etc. The most persuasive argument for the moral permissibility of abortion is widely regarded to be Judith Jarvis Thomson's argument. In her argument, the personhood of the fetus is absolutely irrelevant. What is relevant is whether the mother has a moral obligation to donate her body to the fetus for nine months. She argues that the mother has no such obligation, so abortion is morally permissible.

Arguing that the fetus is not a morally significant agent with rights has been shown to be a philosophical dead end. And so this line has been abandoned in favor of Thomson's line of argumentation. Note the reliance on the value of absolute personal autonomy.

But the same people will not apply this logic to issues surrounding something like vaccination. Recently New York City has ordered mandatory vaccinations for some. Here the flag of scientism is waved. "Vaccines are effective." "The science is with vaccines." "Non-vaxers are conspiracy theorists." Etc. If a non-vaxer were to wave the absolute personal autonomy flag here it would not be allowed to fly. "My body, my choice" would not be acceptable to the people who push vaccines. But these are usually the same people who wave this flag in favor of abortion rights.

You might say: But in the case of vaccines, it's not just your body that is at stake. By not getting vaccinated you are also endangering others.

Okay. I would argue that the same is true - in fact more true - in cases of abortion. It's not just the woman's body at stake, but also the fetus whose life she is ending when she gets an abortion.

So you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either embrace absolute personal autonomy or scientism, but you cannot have both because of the contradictions that ensue.

You are entirely correct. The hypocrisy on this issue is astounding, and not even noticed by those who espouse it.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

I can and I will subscribe to both because anti-vaxxers are a danger to society, particularly the immunocompromised, while abortion is outright murder.

Caveat: Live vaccines shed, which is why people who are immunocompromised are instructed NOT to be around the recently vaccinated. We seem to gloss over this glaring fact.

Someone has to have the disease (whether by being recently vaccinated or simply by acquiring in the wild) to spread it. This rhetoric that the unvaccinated/undervaccinated are "repositories of disease" is just wrong. And by the way, according to today's aggressive schedule - what is it, 70 vaccines now by the age of 18? - that means all older people are, at minimum, "undervaccinated". Yet we don't see grand kids dropping dead by being exposed to grandma or great-grandma, do we? And we never will.

 

[GodLovesCats]

Where did you get the number 70 from? Tentaus shots are given once every 10 years. Polio shots are not repeated after a child's first birthday. MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) is repeated up to a certain age that is well below 18. Actually adults get more vaccines because doctors want them to get flue shots each year.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

Where did you get the number 70 from? Tentaus shots are given once every 10 years. Polio shots are not repeated after a child's first birthday. MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) is repeated up to a certain age that is well below 18. Actually adults get more vaccines because doctors want them to get flue shots each year.

I picked out the first article that mentions how many doses of each. Count them (this is assuming one actually does follow the recommendation and give the flu shot every year, which has two different components).

Vaccines: CDC-Recommended Immunization Schedule From Birth to 18 Years