Death prevention

"Preventing one's own death is an act of charity toward one's spouse and children, and, radiating outward, to the rest of one's loved ones."

This irrational statement, an actual quote urging people to take vaccines as an obligation, perverts medicine and morality. It is a widely held opinion that didn't receive much resistance when it was written, so I won't identify the person who said it but rather try to offer a few thoughts to counteract its error.

Here is the error: I cannot prevent my own death. You cannot prevent your own death.

We will die. When and how we die is up to the Almighty. 

All we can do is live according to basic principles of the natural law (which include those that govern natural bodies), subject to Divine Law, which insists that this world is not our final home and that our earthly existence is not subject to our own will, nor is it an absolute value.

All we can do, within that fundamental framework, is prudently -- not absolutely -- minimize risk. Prudence is the virtue that sees reality as it is, seeks understanding of guiding principles, and applies what it knows to particulars.* Prudence understands that risks must be evaluated; that in this fallen world, no action (or inaction) is without its own risk.

No one can dictate prudence, any more than any other virtue, but particularly because conscience is inseparable from the person -- it cannot be outsourced.

Risk avoidance, as a prudential matter, has many factors known only to the person practicing it (and we all do practice it, more or less), including not making risk avoidance a false God.

Without setting complete risk avoidance aside, no discoveries would occur, no mountains would be climbed, no adventures would take place, no real life would occur. Some are weak and the risks they accept -- the risk of smoking, of eating too much, of not providing themselves with the basics of health such as fresh air, exercise, and moderate nourishment, are factors society works with, because we respect the freedom of the person. 

Some simply choose not to follow medical advice, and good doctors and nurses know that it is only that, advice. Every medical intervention carries risk to a certain extent; denying that this is so is bad medicine. Following every bit of medical advice does not and cannot ensure protection from illness and yes, death.

Until very recently we called people who are afraid to live life, who nervously cling to medications and treat vaccines as magic, who practice extreme risk avoidance, hypochondriacs. 

Now we are making hypochondria a religion. 

We cannot make "preventing one's death" a virtue, because it fails the reality test. 

*Catechism of the Catholic Church1806: Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going."65 "Keep sane and sober for your prayers."66 Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle.67 It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.