Private Practice

I am a huge Private Practice fan, started watching it as soon as it spun off from Grey's Anatomy (which I am also a huge fan of), but I was pretty disappointed in the show last week. Basically it was about a mom with an autistic child who believed that the MMR vaccine had lead to her sons autism. Because of this she had not vaxed her 2 younger sons and then moved the family to Northern Europe for special therapy for her son. Well low and behold when she moved back wouldn't you know one of her sons had measles! The show went on to then portray her as a terrible mother, the doctors even suggesting that she needed to be reported to child services for not vaxing! Of course her son ended up in the hospital, had to be intubated to breath, and then DIED! Could they have come up with a scenario that would have paniced parents more? I mean my god, not every case of measles is that bad. Generations before us got measles all the time, and the majority of them survived. In fact it is safe to say that more kids die in car accidents then ever died from measles before we got the wonder vax, yet we still put our kids in cars.

What I really object to is the media using it's sway to try and effect social change. It looks to me like too many parents are choosing to think for themselves and decide when and if they will vaccinate their children, instead of just doing as they are told by the medical community. Since the "public responsibility" speech didn't work a new tactic had to be tried. What's even worse is that many people will watch that show and vaccinate their kids just because the doctors on tv said they should. I think it is irresponsible for a television show and network to take sides in an issue like this. Vaccinate, or don't vaccinate, your child...either is a parents right, but make your own decision. Don't be swayed by a ploy for mass obedience. Do your own research, make your own choices, and for goodness sake don't give up your rights as a parent to make choices for your child just because something fantastical has scared you!