Ben Franklin quote

[newmum35]

In my ped's office during one of our visits (last year) I noticed a new quote up on the wall. It was by Ben Franklin concerning smallpox and his son. (obviously intended to stop parents from questioning and scaring them into vaxing)

I believe I found it online:

"In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it, by example showing that the regret may be the same either way and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen." -Benjamin Franklin

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin

I'd love to hear everyone's comments on this. What do you think about it and how would you respond to someone who referenced the quote in an effort to persuade you into vaxing?


I'd also like to share another quote from the same man that I was delighted to recently come across on the site below:

"When men differ, both sides ought equally be heard by the public, for when truth and error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter" -Benjamin Franklin

http://www.vaccinationdebate.com/

I'll start the comments by adding a few of my own. One thing that stands out to me is that Ben Franklin only had ONE vaccine to consider giving his son... There are currently 48 on the U.S. schedule before age 6! (I included booster shots, so less if you are counting individual diseases)

Another thing that goes through my mind when I read the quote is that the smallpox disease is much more serious than many (or most) of the things we vaccinate for today... I mean we give rotovirus to prevent diarrhea in babies for goodness sake. Hepatitis A (and Hep B!) to protect adults (babies aren't even at risk of illness let alone death!)

And finally, the fact that Ben Franklin (an incredibly smart guy) researched and felt comfortable making the decision not to vaccinate his son in the first place tells me that obviously there must have been some pretty compelling reasons leading him to this decision!

[Marnica]

Too bad the smallox vaccine had little to do with eradicating smallpox and in fact caused more cases of the disease.

It's an historical fact that the countries that had compulsory smallpox vax laws in the mid to late 1800's had MUCH higher rates of the disease and MUCH higer mortaility rates than those countries that didn't.

[carriebft]

I just can't imagine how I would react if my kid died of a VPD and I didn't get the vaccine but could of, but I think you have to go with what you know at the time and what your risk/benefit analysis says at the time.

I KNOW I would probably beat myself up a bit-- but, ya know, I would probably do the same thing with something I do vax for. For example, say my 16 month old got pertussis-- I would probably thinking lots of what ifs-- what if I had washed her hands more, what if I had decided not to go to X that day, what if I had gotten the DTaP early and gotten in more doses-- whatever...

For him, maybe part of the healing process was telling his story and encouraging others...that's kinda how I try to think when people tell birth stories that have 'teaching lessons' in them. Does that make sense? like when someone says 'I refused a Csection and my child nearly died because of it!"-- I don't take that to mean that I should not refuse a csection for myself...I just try and see it like that is their way of healing from whatever traumas they have suffered.

[laohaire]

I love Ben Franklin. Honestly, I think both quotes are excellent, yes, even the first.

"the regret may be the same either way and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen" - this is very, very reasonable and true.

Obviously the implication of the quote is that he felt, by regret, that the safer choice would have been vaccination. I can't say I wouldn't feel the same if I lost my 4 year old to a VPD. But Franklin was also looking at very different facts in the 1700s. He doesn't say vaccines should be chosen, he said the safer should be chosen. I think he left the question open as to which was the safer. Very, very reasonable.

[Belle]

The innoculations (They weren't called vaccinations then, the word vaccine is named after the cow-pox vaccine that was later given to prevent smalll pox) were as dangerous as getting small pox. Many children and adults died as a result of getting their innoculations. Hindsight is 20/20. Once his child had died he of course would be regretting that he had not done more. But his child would have been in just as much danger from the innoculation.

[fruitfulmomma]

He is using an emotional appeal. I could find hundreds of parents who regret vaccinating their children who could say similar things.

http://iansvoice.org/default.aspx and http://www.*********/vaccine/a_stolen_life.html are just two examples.

If someone were to appeal to me personally with an emotional argument, I could easily turn around and tell them how my husband spent his first four years in and out of the hospital, the result of the DPT.

[laohaire]

I don't agree at all that it's an emotional appeal. He says that the regret is the same either way, therefore the safer should be chosen. So that means, don't decide based on potential regret, your regret won't be lesser for having chosen either option if it fails. So he says to put aside your emotions and choose the safest.

[caro113]

Originally Posted by fruitfulmomma

http://iansvoice.org/default.aspx