No doubt we need to listen to those who are protesting against compulsory vaccinations, who feel “bullied” by a State they believe is encroaching on their own intimate space.
Our freedoms are a precious commodity.
Society must not become the domain of permanent policing and it is to the credit of democracy that these debates are allowed.
Nevertheless…
There is something worrying about the conjunction of opposition coming from all walks of life on the issue of vaccination.
No, individual freedom cannot be the only criterion to be taken into account in public health matters. It never has been.
Otherwise, we would all be dead — of polio or, even before that, of the plague!
It is also surprising to see how much reluctance there is in the ranks of ecologists, who are so concerned about protecting us with regulatory bans on pollution from cars, pesticides from farmers or fuel from aeroplanes, towards mandatory vaccination.
Any health decision requires ethical discernment. And ethics cannot stop at our person. We are beings in relationship with others, and this is the meter we must use to examine such measures.
In Christian theology, we speak of concern for the “common good”.
Health is a matter of collective responsibility, especially for those who are most at risk. There is a form of “preferential option for the weakest”.
It is not a question of blindly accepting just any scientific advance from a society ready to throw itself into the arms of transhumanists.
But it is up to us to show reason, to examine if, in the current state of knowledge, the medical or biomedical proposals are indeed at the service of the human being, a human being in relationship.
Discernment is the duty of every citizen.
This is not about getting vaccinated just so it will be easier to go to the movies.
As France’s chief of defence, General François Lecointre, has noted: Fraternity is arguably the most beautiful but most misunderstood part of the French Republic’s motto.
- Isabelle de Gaulmyn is a senior editor at La Croix and a former Vatican correspondent.
- First published in La Croix International. Republished with permission.