I don’t write about my health, it seems like a very personal
topic to me. But when I discovered that I would not be allowed to register for
classes in the fall until I received “necessary” immunizations, I became irate.
Who, after all, should be able to decide if immunizations
are necessary? Apparently, the University of Alabama thinks itself competent to
make that judgment for me.
In a conversation with a senior official at the student
Health Center, I was advised that the immunizations required by the University
are “fairly common” and that our policy is not unlike the policies of other
institutions around the country.
Roughly ninety years ago, the University was in lockstep
with the world in requiring “mentally deficient” people to undergo sterilization.
And nurses and doctors, like the ones I spoke to when I was coercively injected,
were saying “we’re just doing what they tell us to.”
Now, there is a big difference between forced immunization
and forced sterilization. Immunization is probably a lot more beneficial to the
individual than sterilization is. But both practices are rooted in the same philosophical
premises: 1) That a bureaucrat knows
what’s best for an individual’s health and 2) That it is justifiable to force
someone to undergo medical treatment for the sake of society.
When I spoke with the health official at the Student Health
Center, she repeatedly stressed that the immunizations were for the “safety of
you” and the “safety of those around you.”
Shouldn’t I be allowed to decide what is safe for me and you
what is safe for you? The second issue is not so simple.
When should society be allowed to compel people to receive
treatment for the benefit of society? I contend that there is no justification,
even in times of emergency, for the use of force (or even coercive tactics) to compel
an individual to undergo treatment.
Some of you will say, “but immunization is good for you and
others around you.” No doubt that is true, but forcing (or coercing) someone to
undergo treatment is inherently wrong. When society begins making decisions
about individual people’s health, they are in essence forcing the individual’s
conscience, forcing an individual to declare (whether they agree or not) that they
need the treatment.
An individual is the only unit of justice or happiness. To
declare that justice is being done for society or the overall happiness of
society is being improved by forcing someone to undergo treatment is to say
that it is the overall happiness that matters more, the overall amount of
justice that is important.
When we begin to make such claims, it becomes justice for
the dominant public that becomes important, the happiness of the dominant
public that matters most. The individual who disagrees does not matter, their
concerns can be marginalized in the name of ‘social justice’ or ‘overall
happiness.’
And in the end, no one is happy and no one receives justice when
the happiness of the individual and justice for the individual is not
considered.
When I asked about an exemption based on conscience, I was
told I would have to have a “clergy person” write a letter. As an atheist, I
found it incredibly demeaning that my conscience should be more or less
declared invalid because I do not have a religious leader. This doesn’t just
affect me, there are plenty of people out there who are clergy-less, some religions
do not even have formal clergy.
The medical official at the student health center was not
prepared to comment on this issue.
All I ask of people in power is that they consider the
philosophical basis for their policies. I’m fine getting immunized, I might
have gone in willingly in any case. I am not fine with being forced to. And the
claim that “those around me” are benefiting does not justify my oppression by
dominant norms.
Today, I am not proud to be a student at the University of
Alabama. We should have policies that encourage, not coerce, students to become
immunized; we should be sensitive to alternate belief systems; and above all we
should not use the same justifications for fairly routine immunizations that
were once used to forcibly sterilize minorities on this campus.
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