My Right to Refuse a COVID-19 Vaccine

I’m long on the record that we need to recalibrate the balance between individual freedom and society’s rights.  Personal freedom is often at the direct expense of society’s rights and expectations.  For example, an individual may argue that he has a right to air travel without having to proffer a government authorized ID or to submit to a search of his luggage. On this example, I think most of us would argue that society’s rights would prevail.

And there needs to be personal responsibility and accountability when one exercises particular personal freedoms.  If you want to ride a motorcycle, for example, then your insurance risks should be priced accordingly.  And if you don’t want to wear a helmet while riding, then you and other helmetless riders need to share in this risk so the rest of us don’t have to pay when an unwelcome event occurs on your ride. 

As in everything else in life, this terrain can become murky.  If a patient declines surgery that her medical team unanimously recommends, and as a result a long and expensive hospital stay ensues, would we hold her to be financially responsible?  No, we would not, but it does pose ethical questions.

Choosing Death Over a Vaccine!

Recently, an individual on kidney dialysis was deemed to be ineligible for transplant after refusing a COVID-19 vaccine.  Another patient was denied a heart transplant for the same reason.

Of course, these patients have the right to refuse the vaccine and any medical intervention.  I suspect that most of us in their circumstances would have decided the matter differently. The cardiac patient will likely die and the renal patient will face a shorter lifetime suffering under dialysis. And because of these 2 patient’s decisions, the rest of us must pick up the lifelong costs of dialysis, hospitalizations, etc.  Of course, society will absorb all of these avoidable costs which does bring up an issue of fairness.

Transplant physicians are empowered to establish medical criteria that must be abided by transplant candidates.  They have a responsibility to maximize the probability that the transplanted organs will successfully endure. 

In the current political climate, I’m surprised that no politician has railed from a podium demanding a law that would prohibit medical professionals from requiring a COVID-19 vaccine.

What would we think of another country, whose policies we would ordinarily decry, who mandated 100% vaccinations and have very low rates of illness, death, hospitalizations and economic disruption?  I’m not advocating for authoritarianism, but personal freedom can exact steep costs on society.  Are you ready for a conversation to consider a recalibration of our rights?