Again, something I would post about on Facebook but prefer to mention here -- I would appreciate comments being about this particular vaccine and the principle of medical freedom/bodily integrity:
This article about the Vatican giving consequences to employees not receiving the Covid vaccine prompts a few quick thoughts:
Vaccines are not magic. They have side effects and risks (and they are all different and target different kinds of health issues) -- you only have to read the inserts that come with them to know this.
Agreeing to a vaccine is a matter of being informed and of medical freedom. Up until recently, it was understood that one ought to have recourse to a "religious exemption" -- which I think is commonly interpreted to mean having a right to refuse (which could be and often is actually a scientific, medical assessment of risk/benefit). I think it's not a good name for it; it should be a "medical freedom exemption."
Not allowing medical freedom in the matter of something that is injected into one's body is a dangerous stance. Just because the substance in question seems inoffensive doesn't mean that every substance will always be inoffensive. Next time it could be something to cause sterility or a chip... remember, even today girls are given contraceptives (including implants) by health operatives without parental knowledge; they are even taken for abortions.
This particular vaccine is stated by its manufacturers to be experimental, and it's a human right not to be medically experimented on without one's consent.
The administrative body making decisions is usually the department of health, which is an agency run, remember, by bureaucrats, not scientists. In the case of an institution like the Vatican or a university or a hospital, it's just managers. Much of what drives vaccinations is a combination of checking off public health boxes and trying to avoid lawsuits.
The information they base their decision on comes from the manufacturer of the vaccine, who is indemnified (cannot be sued) for this product's malfunction (unlike other products they offer).
Bodily integrity is a human right. In Casti Connubii #70, Pope Pius XI writes: "Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the reasons of eugenics or for any other reason."
Yes! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI've seen this idea grow in my lifetime -- the idea that one's body is somehow governed by the state and therefore can be subjected to medical intrusions mandated by the state, even when there is no real case to be made re: the common good. Human beings are a unity of body and soul -- the State can no more licitly violate my body than it can my soul. This is not something that I should have to explain to anyone -- it should be common sense. But in the age of death panels, mandatory innoculations from birth onward, etc., I think anyone fighting for medical autonomy is going to have a tough time. I hope, though, that the events of the past year or so have woken many citizens from their slumber to realize how many rights have been stolen from them by an increasingly intrusive and controlling government.
ReplyDeleteMy method is simply to ignore these medical mandates. I seldom frequent doctors, do not participate in the "managed care" system (preferring to take care of myself), and, as long as I can keep this up no one comes bothering me.
On principle forcing a person to take a vaccine is wrong and as far as I can tell contrary to Church teaching. But This vaccine in particular, is an experimental new mRNA type and did not go through the proper trials. There are reports of bad side effects. I see people pushing back who would have otherwise gone right along. Perhaps there will be enough objection to get the Vatican to rethink this stance.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find sad and disheartening is that I have come to distrust most of what is coming out of the Vatican lately. This has grown over the last few years, and at an even greater rate the last few months. This is just one more example. It is apparent that our leadership has been infiltrated and corrupted throughout, from the Vatican down to the lowest levels. Church used to be wear we would turn to in times of trouble. Thankfully, I know my faith is true even its leaders are not.
ReplyDeleteHow tragic that pro-abortionists have twisted the idea of bodily integrity so that we are timid about asserting it in its proper form!
ReplyDelete"My body, my choice" is a terrible slogan, because it's applied to the woman who has *another's* body within her -- it's the bodily integrity of the *baby* that we are defending!
In the case of vaccines (or even masks), one ought to be able to defend one's own body against aggression. To say so is not to repeat the spurious slogans of the Left. It's to defend the natural law!