A Kentucky judge has ruled against an unvaccinated Catholic high school student who sued his local health department for banning unvaccinated students from school and extracurricular activities amid a chickenpox outbreak.
On April 2, Judge James Schrand of Boone County Court denied the request for a preliminary injunction that would allow the student, 18-year-old Jerome Kunkel, to return to classes and activities at Our Lady of Assumption Academy in Walton, Kentucky. In denying the request, Judge Schrand sided with the Northern Kentucky Health Department, which argued that it had lawfully done what it deemed necessary to curb the spread of a dangerous infectious disease.
The outbreak sickened at least 32 in the Assumptions community and had the potential to spread further. Of Assumptions 240 students, only 18 percent have received all of their vaccinations, according to the schools registrar.
In his lawsuit, Kunkel, a senior and “important player” on the boys basketball team at the school, said he opposes vaccination on religious grounds and argued in court that the ban violated his Constitutional rights. In an interview with The Washington Post, Kunkels father, Bill, called the health departments actions “tyranny against our religion, our faith, our country.”
The court disagrees—as does his own religion.
The crux of the Kunkels argument against vaccination is that the chickenpox vaccine is “derived from aborted fetal cells,” and the Catholic Church generally opposes abortion. There is some truth in their objection. Both types of chickenpox vaccines available (brand names Varivax and ProQuad) use a weakened form of the virus that is propagated in a lineage of cells dubbed MRC-5. That cell line was developed from the lung tissue of a 14-week-old fetus, aborted for “psychiatric reasons” in 1966. Both forms of the vaccine may contain “residual components of MRC-5 cells including DNA and protein,” according to manufacturers.
From that, the Kunkels concluded that the vaccine is immoral and should be rejected absolutely. But the Catholic Church disagrees, taking a more nuanced stance. In a 2005 statement on the matter, the Vatican noted its ethical objection to the manufacturing methods of such vaccines and encouraged the use of alternatives when possible. But in the end, the church came to the practical judgement that when no alternatives are available, such vaccines are acceptable and necessary to “avoid a serious risk not only for one's own children but also, and perhaps more specifically, for the health conditions of the population as a whole—especially for pregnant women.” The argument would seem to be further bolstered by the fact that the chickenpox can cause severe birth defects and, if it strikes late in a pregnancy, life-threatening infections in neRead More – Source
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Ars Technica
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