The Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott just toughened his stand against the parents abstaining child vaccination by announcing $11,000 cut down in the overall annual benefit payments. Australia has always been tough on the parents who abstained from vaccinating their kids, but this announcement is nothing short of a threat to such irresponsible parents.
Right to Conscientious Objections
As is the condition in most of the liberalized countries, in Australia the parents have the freedom to decide whether to vaccinate their kids or not. There can be multiple reasons why parents abstain from vaccinating their kids, including medical grounds or religious beliefs. But with the ‘no jab, no pay’ policy coming into play in January 2016, it will be compulsory for the parents to vaccinate their kids.
No conscientious objections or other grounds will be entertained and the family will have no option but to face heavy cuts in the overall annual benefit payments. For those who will try to defy the policy and refuse to follow the set governmental guidelines, the decision can prove to be quite expensive.
Vaccination is the Best Protection against Diseases
Vaccination is the best protection available against diseases for children. With the advancement in health and medical sciences, it is now possible to prevent many serious illnesses and complicated diseases using vaccination process.
In the absence of vaccination, such serious diseases can prove to be fatal, or lead to grave consequences such as brain damage, hearing loss, amputation or leg or arm, convulsions and paralysis of the limb.
Measles, whooping cough and mumps largely affect the children from the developed and developing countries such as the US, Australia and India. Over the years, compulsory vaccination in some part of the world has led to rapid declination in the number of diseased children.
Since children are the future of the nation, it is the duty of the parents as well as the nation to protect them from all possible threats, which is the reason behind the tough stand of Australia against the parents neglecting vaccination.