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59
"We do not doubt that the fact that penalties may be repeated secures
in some cases the vaccination of children, who would otherwise remain
unvaccinated; but we believe that the irritation which these repeated
prosecutions create, when applied in the case of those who honestly object
to have their children vaccinated, and the agitation and active prapaganda
of anti-vaccination views, which they foster in such cases, tend so greatly
to a disuse of the praotice, in the district where such occurrences take place,
that in the result the number of children vaccinated is less than it would
have been had the power of repeated prosecution never existed or been
exercised. This seems to us to be the crucial question. A law severe in its
terms, and enforced with great stringency, may be less effectual for its
purpose than one of less severity and which is put in force less uncompromisingly.
When this is the case it cannot be doubted that the law
which appears less severe is really the more effective. The ultimate object
of the law must be kept in view. The penalty was not designed to punish
a parent who may be considered misguided in his views and unwise is his
action, but to secure the vaccination of the people. If a law less severe, or
administered with less stringency, would better secure this end, that seems
to us conclusive in its favour.''
(522) "If, then, we cannot look with any certainty to a change of the
authority whose duty it is to enforce the law as a means of securing
vaccination in those districts where it has already fallen into disuse, it
obviously follows that every endeavour should be made so to frame and to
administer the law that opposition to vaccination' should not spread to
other districts, and that it should cease or diminish in those parts of the
country where it at present prevails."
"It is to be hoped that our Report will stimulate belief in the efficacy
of vaccination, that it will remove some apprehensions and reassure some
who take an exaggerated view of the risks connected with the operation, as
well as lead to a more ready enforcement of the law by local authorities."
(524) "After careful consideration and much study of the subject, we
have arrived at the conclusion that it would conduce to increased vaccination
if a scheme could be devised which would preclude the attempt (so
often a vain one) to compel those who are honestly opposed to the practice
to submit their children to vaccination, and, at the same time, leave the
law to operate, as at present, to prevent children remaining unvaccinated
owing to the neglect or indifference of the parent. When we speak of an
honest opposition to the practice, we intend to confine our remarks to cases
in which the objection is to the operation itself, and to exclude cases in
which the objection arises merely from an indisposition to incur the trouble
involved. We do not think such a scheme impossible."