Oregon’s Supreme Court is deciding whether the state can immunize children against their parents’ wishes.
Oregon’s Supreme Court is deciding whether the state can immunize children against their parents’ wishes.
The case is called Department of Human Services vs. S.M. and R.M. It started in January 2012 when DHS case workers removed a couple’s eight children from their home in Marion County. The parents admitted to “various allegations regarding the conditions and circumstances of their children, who were between 1 and 8 years of age,” according to court documents.
State laws gives parents permission to refuse to immunize their children before they attend public schools. DHS and the appellate court’s position was the statute doesn’t create a “stand-alone statutory right of parents to exempt their children from immunization.” The appellate court also decided that nothing in Oregon’s juvenile code restricts a child’s legal custodian or guardian from making health care decisions.
Read more at The Statesman Journal.
