Can “therapeutic freedom” be invoked to justify the refusal of vaccination? This is the question on which the Constitutional Council is called upon to rule after having received a priority question of constitutionality (QPC). The Auxerre correctional court transmitted this QPC to the highest French legal body after the refusal of a couple from Yonne to have their two children (a three-year-old girl and an 18-month-old boy) vaccinated against diphtheria , tetanus and polio (DTP), a vaccine however compulsory.
Parents justify their refusal to vaccination by the desire not to administer adjuvants to their children. However, the vaccines currently available combine DTP with other vaccines such as whooping cough, hepatitis B or meningitis. Parents therefore prefer not to vaccinate their offspring against DTP.
Problem, this non-vaccination prevents certain registrations for which proof of vaccination on the health record is requested, such as the nursery, school, daycare or even summer camp.
A heavy penalty risk
This “therapeutic freedom” defended by parents is opposed by the Penal Code which punishes two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros for refusing or obstructing vaccination.
The Constitutional Council therefore has three months to decide this delicate question and to force or not the parents to vaccinate their children.
