State v individual

Social Credit Party’s deputy leader, Amanda Vickers, claims compulsory vaccination is unethical (Why compulsory vaccination is unethical, Dec 19). This is said to be supported by the Nuremberg Code, UN Declaration of Human Rights and New Zealand’s Bill of Rights.

In fact the Nuremberg Code is about medical experiments, not routine vaccination. The NZ Bill of Rights Act also declares that everyone has a right not to be subjected to medical experimentation without consent, but again, that is not relevant to vaccination. The UN Declaration refers to a vague right to ‘‘security of person’’. None of these documents support Vickers’ argument.

Vickers also misleads with the statement that mandatory vaccination would enable the state ‘‘to deliver, to whom it wants, directly into our bodies, what it wants, in any amount it wants, whenever it wants’’. No, the state would only want to vaccinate people against the terrible diseases that may otherwise spread through the population.

Vickers is also concerned about state coercion, and says Social Credit’s overriding constitutional principle is that ‘‘the individual is more important than the state’’. If that were true then a Social Credit government would need to repeal the Crimes Act as it places the interests of the state ahead of those of murderers and many others.

And that is just for starters – they might have to repeal every law, as they all may impinge on some individual.

John McDermott, Lower Hutt [abridged]

Amanda Vickers says the individual is more important than the state. She wants to have the right to be a measles carrier, to infect 100 people and so kill 20 of them.

Being part of this world, you have a responsibility towards your fellow human beings. You live in a community so there are rules that make live more liveable.

I assume Amanda wants her own traffic rules as well. If you don’t like living in this community with its protective rules, find an inhabited island and avoid all contact with the rest of this world.

As a community we have the ethical right to make vaccinations for common deadly and debilitating illnesses compulsory. Exit Amanda, exit Social Credit.

Adrian Moonen, Eastbourne