Some conventional doctors now discriminating against patients who choose not to vaccinate their children

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: vaccinations, medical discrimination, health news

(NaturalNews) There are still many individuals in modern society, including doctors, that cling to the notion that if medical authorities say it is good for you, then it must be. And this blind allegiance to Western medicine has created a climate of intolerance towards those that refuse vaccinations, for instance, which has resulted in some doctors actually "firing" patients who make this personal choice for their families.

Before getting licensed, every physician makes an oath swearing to practice medicine ethically, and to "do no harm" to patients. But apparently this does not apply to patients who choose not to assume the health risks involved with vaccinations. And USA Today reports that a some doctors are now flat-out discriminating against such patients on the grounds that they are a public health threat.

At a recent meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Dr. Thomas Tryon, a pediatrician at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo., and his colleagues presented data showing that more than 20 percent of 900 surveyed doctors that practice medicine in Midwestern states have stopped seeing patients who refuse vaccinations.

Dr. Tryon is one such intolerant doctor, who believes that individuals who refuse vaccinations are a threat to his other patients; this is one of the reasons he refuses to see them. Dr. Tryon used to respect his individual patients' freedom of health choice, but he now insists that all of his patients either comply with his vaccination guidelines, or else look for another doctor.

Pediatrician Raymond Catteneo, also of Kansas City, Mo., has also "instituted a strict immunization policy -- no refusals and no alternative schedules" -- these are his own words. He believes that giving patients any leeway in making their own vaccination choices allows them to "decide something that [is] not right."

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a group that supports the right to refuse vaccines, says this attitude of superiority and intolerance towards differing beliefs by some doctors has driven many families towards integrative, holistic, and alternative practitioners that are respectful and more willing to work with them (http://www.nvic.org/).

According to the same survey, roughly 60 percent of doctors indicated that one in 20 families in their practice has either refused or requested modifications to the suggested vaccination schedules. And four percent of doctors said that a majority of their patients have either refused or requested modifications to the suggested vaccination schedules.

Sources for this article include:

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/20...