I can see where you are coming from; and I am pro-vaccine in the sense that I had my children vaccinated in line with government / health service requests and g

I can see where you are coming from; and I am pro-vaccine in the sense that I had my children vaccinated in line with government / health service requests and guidelines. In fact we also opted to have my daughter given an extra vaccine for meningitis that was not indicated at the time but has subsequently become mainstream. However, I think that you may be a bit out in some of the views you have written here. Have a look at this site : http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/mmr-side-effects.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/mmr-side-eff... 1:1000 for a seizure is a long way from 1:1000000, and yes I would and did prefer to run that risk rather than the risk of Measles which is an appalling disease, and I would prefer to sleep knowing that I've not only protected my child but also other children. But I did this with the honest knowledge that there was a risk. My brother suffers from seizures - this is a bad thing to have happen to anyone. I believe my fellow citizens deserve the same chance, and I believe that they will come to the same view as me if given the opportunity. >When real deaths are on the line in much higher percentages than any real side-effects there is definitely a moral high ground. One thing that changed my views here was holding my child in my arms; things stopped being about percentages and trade-offs and became centred on the welfare of the small person who could not protect herself. We are asking parents to be altruistic; in society we are not obliged to be altruistic as we are obliged to be moral - it's a gift, not a requirement. For example you could say that parents are obliged to make sure that all the children in the city have eaten before they feed their child, but human society and human rationality just don't run that way. We are neither angels, nor automata.