CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATIONS: PARALYSIS ON PARENTAL RIGHTS, DEMAND ON TAXPAYER DOLLARS

Rena L. Holmes Jones, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Abstract

The rise in the incidence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is one of the most serious public health issues in recent years. The current statistics suggests that roughly one child out of every 150 has autism or an autistic-like disorder, compared to earlier estimates placing the rate at four or five children out of every 10,000.

Autism is a condition that typically reveals itself within the first 0-4 years of life. The wide continuum of associated cognitive and neurobehavioral disorders have three core-defining features: impairments in socialization, impairments in verbal and nonverbal communication, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors. In light of recent settlements and Federal Claims Court decisions conflicting on the causal connection between Autism and childhood vaccinations, requiring parents to immunize their children prior to attendance of public school based on state mandated childhood vaccinations should be considered a violation of the 5th and 14th amendment right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As with any area which pertains to individual liberties, states should not be allowed to provide lesser protections of such liberties than the United States Constitution permits.

New legislation should be proposed to make immunizations optional, absent evidence of a life threatening outbreak; especially during early childhood development. This article intends to illustrate the problem of mandatory vaccinations. In addition it will suggest a legislative solution to the” heavy lifting” that petitioners must bear in attempting to gain compensation for vaccine injuries that are not currently given a presumption of causation (such as Autism) under the inadequacy of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. As a prerequisite to understand the benefits of a federal law which makes mandated childhood immunizations unconstitutional, the history of vaccines in the United States and how vaccine manufacturers were impacted by civil litigation is provided in part I of the following article, along with discussion on the controversial link between Autism and vaccines. Part II discusses the impact of current state legislation on families with vaccine injured children and the impact of current state legislation on tax dollars in the United States. Additionally, part II points out the flaws in the current legislation and the jurisprudent procedure used to assess merits of injury cases. Finally, Part III discusses the many jurisdictions that currently have legislation in place similar to what is being proposed and the legislative intent behind such statutes as well as the opposing view and its accompanying rationale. This article concludes by proposing a statutory solution to the problems allegedly caused by immunizations in the Unites States. The solution is a statutory scheme that dramatically decreases the likelihood of vaccine injury related litigation, increases the pool of tax dollars available for further research into the definitive link between Autism and childhood vaccinations, and furthers the expectation of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness afforded to every American under the 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution of the United States.