Posted on 08/23/17
| News Source: YWN
The Tel Aviv Family Court decided to intervene in a dispute between parents who had separated about their children’s vaccinations and ruled that if a mother refused to vaccinate her son, the father would be obligated to vaccinate him – as requested by the father.
In a decision published on Ynet, Judge Vered Shavit Finkelstein determined, according to a medical opinion submitted to her, that the routine immunizations given in Israel are safe, necessary and effective, and the complications around them are very rare.
According to the court, the manner in which the mother presented the damage of the vaccines, based on data appearing on the “Chasson” website, is incorrect, misleading and distorted. It was also determined that the approach that parents’ decision not to vaccinate their children beyond the risk to children themselves also poses risks to public health, since people with weak immune systems are at risk.
The child’s parents have parted during the pregnancy, and various legal proceedings are currently taking place, at the center of which is the child. One of the most sensitive disputes between the former couple was the question of the child’s vaccine, and the discussion took place during the court’s recess after an urgent appeal from the father after the litigation lasted more than a year and the boy, almost three, was due to start kindergarten in two weeks.
The father, represented by attorney Yaakov Katzin of the Gideon Koren firm, asked that the mother have the child vaccinated, based on the opinion of the medical expert appointed by the court and the Ministry of Health’s recommendations.
On the other hand, the mother argued that in the State of Israel there is no obligation for parents to vaccinate their children, and therefore her ideological position regarding the non-immunization of her son is legitimate. He said there was a claim that the companies producing the vaccines were motivated by economic considerations, and that the non-vaccination so far had led to certain routine vaccines being no longer needed.
In his opinion, Professor Yona Amitai, appointed by the court, ruled that vaccines are considered the most common and safe medical technology in the world. And that routine immunization of children in Israel led to a dramatic reduction in morbidity and mortality from 15 different infectious diseases. “A parent who wants to raise children with the spartan approach of ‘what does not kill – stirs’ an unreasonable and immoral risk for his children,” wrote Prof. Amitai.
The court that accepted the opinion determined that the child would receive all vaccinations according to the instructions of the Ministry of Health, with the exception of two vaccinations that the expert testified that the age of the child is no longer necessary.