Vaccines: Child Consent Agenda Pushes Forward

Two U.S. states already have laws allowing children to consent to vaccines -- CA and NC -- and this could become a trend around the country, as more state legislatures, TX and NY to be specific, have introduced similar bills. Now, New York legislators are revising their prior attempt with House Bill A497, which would allow children to consent to vaccination, a procedure that comes with a risk of permanent disability and death (Google the "National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program"), for sexually transmitted diseases.

If this strikes you as wrong at a gut level, you'll be pleased to know that it also violates numerous state and federal laws. But let me be clear: State legislators can pass any law so long as they get the votes, whether it's Constitutional or not, because a law is not officially "unconstitutional" until a court says so. In other words, that oath that state legislators take to uphold the state and federal Constitutions? That's just a formality required of newly elected officials before they can start working. The practical reality is that that oath doesn't actually mean anything. For example, when confronted with the fact that the NC child consent law, which allows children of any age to consent to vaccinations and other medical treatments, violates four state and federal Constitutional provisions and an additional four state and federal statutory provisions, and that the reason for which it was supposedly passed was already fully addressed by other existing laws (that are Constitutional), my state senator replied: "I can't help you. We have UNC Hospitals in our district." (What the...?!)

And that's not an isolated case. The states of WA, OR and CA have all revised their school exemption statutes in a manner that violates First Amendment "free exercise of religion" boundaries. Regardless of what you think about vaccines, we should all be very concerned when legislators persistently ignore the Constitution. Once the Constitution becomes meaningless, we no longer have a democracy, we have a police state - in this instance, a vaccine police state.

My response to the NY state legislature's revision of their vaccine child consent law was to write a letter to them addressing serious Constitutional and other conflicts with this proposed law. A copy of that letter and a fully referenced Legal Memorandum are posted at the Vaccine Rights website here.

June 5, 2014

TO: New York State Legislators

FROM: Alan Phillips, J.D., Nationally Recognized Vaccine Rights Legal Expert

RE: A497, specifically, the administration of vaccines to minors for sexually transmissible diseases without a parent's or guardian's consent

Dear New York State General Assembly:

On behalf of the citizens of the Great State of New York, A497a violates numerous federal and state Constitutional provisions and statutory law. For these reasons, this bill should be withdrawn.

SUMMARY

A497a:

Violates the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause by taking parental authority away from parents without the Supreme Court's required showing that the parents are unfit;
Violates parents' First and 14th Amendment Constitutional rights, and State freedom of worship Constitutional rights, with respect to parents' right to exercise religious and medical exemptions to immunizations, rights which minor children cannot exercise for themselves;
Conflicts with the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (NCVIA), a superseding federal law, which requires healthcare professionals administering vaccines to minors to first provide documentation on vaccine safety and risks and information about the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) to the parent or guardian before administering vaccines;
Encourages New York healthcare professionals administering vaccines to violate federal law and, therefore, state board ethical rules, since parents and guardians must first be provided information required by the NCVIA prior to the administration of vaccines to minors;
Subverts the fact that vaccination carries a risk of permanent disability and death. Children are neither legally competent nor sufficiently mature emotionally to make such decisions without parental guidance and input; and
Is unnecessary. New York State law already allows: [a] medical authorities to provide care to children in emergencies, [b] state social workers to assume temporary custody of abused and neglected children and to then make medical decisions for them, and [c] emancipated children to make medical decisions for themselves. There is no need for children to make immunization decisions outside of these Constitutionally acceptable situations.

For all of the above reasons, this bill should not be enacted into law.

Respectfully Submitted at the request of,
and on behalf of, concerned citizens
of the Great State of New York,

Alan G. Phillips, Esq.
N.C. State Bar No. 30436
[email protected]

For a more complete explanation of the above, see the Legal Memorandum at the Vaccine Rights website here.