Conscience and Vaccination Exemptions
“The magistrates seem to be having a difficult task on hand, in trying to decide questions of conscience,” observes an exchange published in London, England. “The law allows the ‘conscientious objector’ to vaccination to receive a certificate of exemption, but it seems that a man’s statement to that effect is not sufficient. He must prove, to the satisfaction of the magistrates, that he is conscientious. Of course the thing is impossible, for in a case of that kind no one can do more than solemnly declare his conscientious convictions. The result is that the granting of the exemption depends wholly upon what the magistrate believes in the case, and not on what the applicant believes. The worst feature about the matter is the precedent that is set, that a man’s conscience may be a subject of legal examination. The Inquisition was built upon that.”