Beyond borders No sooner had I clicked "send" on last Thursday's eTip when I came across a piece of news that proves that the war against holistic medicine isn't just being waged in Washington state. In fact, that war has spread to my very own backyard. As some of you may know, the company that publishes Nutrition & Healing is based in Baltimore, Maryland, and I've lived here for most of my adult life. In that time, I've always been proud of the fact that Maryland has what I consider a wealth of natural and alternative clinics and practitioners. Which, I suppose, puts us at higher risk for unwanted attention from government regulatory agencies and the resulting types of persecution Dr. Wright and his colleagues in Washington have been facing from organizations like M"Q"AC. So I can't say that I'm necessarily surprised to see threats to health care freedom of choice cropping up here. But it was the severity of the recent attack that left me dumbfounded. State officials are threatening parents with prison sentences if they refuse to have their children vaccinated. And this warning came after the Prince George's County state attorney informed parents that their children would be withdrawn from school until sufficient "proof" of vaccination had been submitted. In the meantime, the parents would also face fines and criminal charges due to their children's school absences. Talk about a no-win situation. Parents were ordered to bring their children in immediately for a list of mandatory shots, from the standard MMR to the newly added (not to mention completely unnecessary) chickenpox vaccine. And to make matters even more Gestapo-like, health officials set up makeshift immunization clinics right inside the courthouse, complete with uniformed officers and guard dogs to monitor the progress. The sad part is, these police-state, fear-mongering tactics worked: Within two weeks of receiving the letters threatening parents with prison time, more than 1,500 children out of 2,600 had been brought in for these "mandatory" vaccinations. This just sends a message to other counties and states that bullying parents and patients into compliance is an appropriate and successful technique. And the smug reaction from the judge in charge of juvenile issues in Prince George's County doesn't help matters much either. To quote his response to the drastic measures employed "I appreciate we're out on a limb a little bit, but it's working really well." Blindfolding, handcuffing, and forcibly vaccinating children would probably work "really well" too, but I guess that was just a bit too far out on that limb for Maryland state officials -- this time. My point in all of this isn't to argue against vaccines (although there are plenty of arguments to be made on that issue), or to beg sympathy for myself and my fellow Marylanders. My point is to show you just how fragile your health care freedom of choice is, and to urge you to voice your concerns and your expectations -- loudly and frequently -- to your own state and local representatives. The war against freedom of choice is one that extends way beyond borders: Don't let it creep its way into your backyard without putting up a fight. To find the names and contact information for your state and local representatives, visit congress.org. Source:
"Maryland parents told to have children immunized," The New York Times (www.nytimes.com), 11/17/07 | 
