Yes. They’re a government scheme to keep the nation’s children alive and healthy, you silly, silly people.
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I am already willing myself to ceed control over my life when I get older. I worked with an amazing population of older volunteers, and those that worked at being independent but were willing to accept help were happiest.
My grandmother is nearly 100 and her family was nomadic. She walks everyday, cares not for fences, and from time to time moves snakes off trails.
My parents are quite sure she is going to outlive them. I am already willing to accept hearing aids, cains, etc… Things that my parents and grandparent don’t want to use. At least everybody has a “red” folder, where important information is stored.
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NPR has an interview with the kid up on their site:
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Things like this are why I think that once they’re verbal, the system needs to get kids a) more involved in understanding their healthcare and b) less insistent on parental involvement.
Yes, that sounds scary to parents. It doesn’t mean cutting them out right away. But parents may mean well while making horrible choices and it’s the child who has to live with the consequences. He was 18, but what about a 12 year old who also understands the science better than her parents, and doesn’t want to die from a preventable disease. Should a doctor have to consult her parents? Can they – ethically – perform a medical procedure without parental consent? Are they required to inform the parents that the child was seeking medical treatment?
The same can apply in other situations, not just vaccines. Can a trans child seek help and support that they wouldn’t get from their family, without having to worry about it getting revealed? Can they obtain treatment that will better their lives, or should they be forced to suffer because mom and dad think that being transgender is a mental disorder, or against God?
Can a fifteen-year-old be able to obtain birth control without parental consent?
Sadly, as we are seeing more and more, parents often do not know what is best for their children. I am of the opinion that all of the above should ultimately be decisions between the patient and their doctor, including the rule of confidentiality. Consider that children can be charged with crimes and sent to prison far younger than we allow them control over their own medical care.
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Penn & Teller on vaccinations:
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In regards to the 12 year old, absolutely yes, we must consult with and obtain consent from the parents. The child is essentially a non-factor, a passive object in this scenario. As you get to 15, it varies by state. Here in VA I can treat a “mature minor” (which is conveniently not strictly defined) for a limited scope of complaints, generally, those dealing with sex, drugs or mental health. I cannot give vaccines, I cannot perform most surgical procedures. Interestingly, although I cannot reveal the treatment, if they use the parents’ insurance, the EOB will tell them exactly what was done. So, we will tell them to pay cash if they want to keep it from the parents.
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But, because of their beliefs I’ve never been vaccinated for anything, god knows how I’m still alive."
Run, far away from them.
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And for the love of god, do not tell them when you have kids of your own!!
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Roger That!
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At least she has 6 more kids.
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Gives her enough spares so that 2 or three will reach adulthood
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Well, now you’re just throwing salt in this poor mom’s wounds.
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Interestingly, although I cannot reveal the treatment, if they use the parents’ insurance, the EOB will tell them exactly what was done. So, we will tell them to pay cash if they want to keep it from the parents.
Buddy, if the kid’s in a tight spot, you could help them for FREE. That is within your power.
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Not anywhere near as simple as that. Wish it was, but truly not. Should be, but is not.
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Now that’s how you rebel against your parents; good on him.
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This is what’s so frustrating. If a twelve-year-old came to you and said “My parents don’t believe in vaccines, but I don’t want to die,” you know the child is right, but you literally are not allowed to override the people who are putting that child’s life at risk. Yet if you try to talk to the parents, you might end up endangering her more. As for your “mature minor”, the fact that you can treat them for mental and sexual health issues, but aren’t allowed to give them something as low-risk and high-benefit (including public benefit) as a vaccine is – to me, anyway – ridiculous. It’s acknowledging that “yep, you’re old enough to have sex, get a job or drive a car, but you’re not old enough to decide to have something that is literally safe enough to give to infants and toddlers.”
It’s not an easy question, to be sure. There are other health care matters where it’s far more important that parents be involved. I just hate to think of a child being forced to suffer because of parental ignorance, even if well intended. Especially since it’s not just one person’s health at stake. It really is a public health issue.
Yes, I am passionate about the idea that if someone wants to be vaccinated, and the vaccines are highly tested and proven over time (like polio and MMR), shouldn’t be prevented from saving their own and others’ lives, unless there is a compelling medical reason not to.
Do doctors always know best? No, but I would trust my doctor on matters of medicine far more than I would trust what my father found on the internet. Fortunately, I am old enough to do that.
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“It was like him spitting on me,” she continued, “saying ‘You don’t know anything, I don’t trust you with anything. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You did make a bad decision and I’m gonna go fix it.’”
I’d be a lot more sympathetic if she did know something, could be trusted with things, knew what she was talking about, had made a good decision; and wasn’t having it fixed by someone more sensible.
Honestly, her response is reaching the level of cluelessness that’s so close to tipping into self awareness… Her feeling of victimization is fundentally wrong; but her itemization of things she feels victimized by is pretty solid.
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Explain that.
You’re going to turn away a troubled 15 year old kid, who has a problem related to “sex, drugs, or mental health” because they don’t have cash?
You’ll take their insurance knowing mom and dad will find out and beat them/kick them out of the house/maybe worse?
It doesn’t look good.
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It will be interesting to see if vaccines get included in response to the anti-vax types.
The various ‘mature minor’ carve-outs are (though they usually try to put it more politely) basically there to cover areas where parents deliberately hurting their children for moral satisfaction or inadvertently hurting them out of delusion are a known, nontrivial, problem in medicine.
If the risk of parents who think that MMR vaccine causes autism is recognized as being on par with the risk of parents who think that HPV vaccine causes promiscuity it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see an inclusion of conventional vaccinations on the list of things that parents can’t be trusted to be the gatekeepers of.
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