(Jan. 19) Even for those of us largely supportive of COVID vaccines, a Connecticut legislator has gone way too far by proposing to let children as young as 12 demand vaccines (against any disease) without parental consent.
Yes, that’s all the bill says. It doesn’t purport to set out a careful process through which children can avoid the usual presumption of “parents know best,” nor does it provide any safeguards or restrictions on the ability of children to get vaccines. It just says children can demand them, period.
Granted, it’s just a proposal, not one that has even received a committee hearing yet. Ordinarily, it wouldn’t merit comment at this stage beyond Connecticut itself. In this case, however, not just one but multiple assumptions behind the bill have become so widespread on the political Left that they should be nipped in the bud before they advance a single legislative step. After all, Washington, D.C., adopted a similar law last year despite the obvious and compelling arguments against it.
Those arguments are multitudinous, but they can be divided into two categories — one based on principle and one on specific realities of COVID vaccines.
In principle, this bill tracks a much broader assault against parental rights while ignoring the scientifically irrefutable fact that children (except, perhaps, Einstein-like geniuses) do not have brains developed enough, much less the requisite experience, context, or judgment to weigh the pros and cons of medical options. The presumption of parental authority exists both for the latter reason (the undeveloped minds) and because of the age-old across-almost-every-species undeniable reality that parents are biologically predisposed to protect and raise their offspring.
The political Left, proving itself the party against science and decency, has been waging concerted cultural warfare for years against parental rights. Leftists demand that children be allowed to undergo abortions and to begin gender “transitions” without even informing their parents. They say parents should butt out of their own children’s educations…. [The full column is here.]
