When most of us were were teenagers, we went behind our parents’ back to smoke cigarettes, drink booze, maybe take hit on a joint now and then – or worse. But one Ontario teen is getting Internet accolades for taking the time-honored act of sneaking around one’s parents to a whole new level, all for the sake of her health.
Posting in a Reddit forum, an anti-vaxxer mother ranted about her daughter who, without the mother’s permission, went and got herself vaccinated.
Furious, the mother (going by the screen name momquestionthrowaway) wanted advice on who she could sue:
None of my children are vaccinated. Totally by accident I came to find out that my oldest daughter has been fully vaccinated (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hep a and b, menengitis a and b and hpv) without mine or my husband’s knowledge or consent. In Ontario we have socialized medicine and publicly funded vaccines. She admitted she went to clinics run for school aged children run by our local health public health unit to get her shots and also got a few at a local walk in clinic that are not yet publicly funded paid for with her babysitting money. When I called public health and the clinic to complain they both said that because she is age 16 they cannot release any information to me – and I’m her mother! My husband and are livid that she was vaccinated without our consent. What kind of action can we take against public health and the clinic for vaccinating a child without parental consent? Do we have a case for a lawsuit?
Of course, she was ripped pretty heavily by Redditors in the comments. Here are just a few examples:
From heySSM:
Parental consent? Really? I hope your daughter is getting some good legal advice regarding your flagrant and public attempts to violate HER medical consent, and infringing her right to privacy of same. You’re telling the world someone else’s personal medical business without their consent, based on a sense of parental ownership of their body that does not, in any sense, exist. Regardless of your views on vaccines, this is disgusting, and displays a wanton lack of regard for the privacy, autonomy, and choices of a person you’re protesting you ought to be wholly in control of.
Sort yourself out, for her sake and the sake of the rest of your children. You are not their overlord, you are their guardian. This does not entitle you to harm them or attempt to bully or threaten medical staff into releasing her private records. Parents like you are why we HAVE those laws, so our kids can get preventive health care without having to depend on parental illusions of bodily property to be replaced with, you know, the reality of unplanned pregnancy or death & maiming by communicable disease.
From JustSomeGuyNamedGreg:
I made a Reddit account specifically to respond to the original poster. I’m a healthcare provider in Ontario. I run a vaccination clinic. I have vaccinated over 20,000 people in the last 10 years of being a medical provider. I have had minor side effects on the range of 1:10 people, however I have never had a single serious vaccine related adverse event.
In Ontario it is the responsibility of the clinician to decide if the client is making an informed and educated choice and is aware of the implications of any treatment or withholding treatment. Chronological age is irrelevant.
From angelcat00:
Your daughter sounds exceptionally intelligent and mature for her age. You should be proud of her.
From FMN2014:
So your non-ignorant 16 year old daughter sought to immunise herself from disease for free? Thank f*ck!
From brainwagon:
You should be happy that your daughter has more sense and cares more for her health and the health of others than you do.
From Gnimhey:
Congratulations to your daughter! It’s kind of a shame that she’s safeguarding your genetic information, but I guess she got lucky and inherited the recessive genes for intelligence from you and her father! Thank her for helping to ensure you have grandchildren, ok?
Kudos this girl.
h/t mommyish.com
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