Conscience versus vaccination passports

B.C. Health Officer Bonnie Henry’s decision to spare churches the obligation of vaccine passports is a small mercy, I suppose.

B.C.’s introduction of vaxports, or “vaccine cards” as the government calls them, was a complete reversal of Henry’s position just three months ago when she told media, “there is no way we will recommend inequities be increased by use of things like vaccine passports for services with public access here in British Columbia.”

That was in May, and while Henry said vaccine restrictions would likely be necessary for international travel, she added, “It would not be my advice that we have any sort of vaccine passport within British Columbia for services in B.C.”

On Aug. 5, she was no longer following her own advice, saying the province was “looking at all options,” including passports.

On Aug. 12 she announced mandatory vaccinations for long-term care and assisted living workers and offered her support for any venue that denied access to the unvaccinated. She also acknowledged some people have valid reasons for not getting COVID-19 shots. “We know of some people – though that’s rare – have medical reasons not to be immunized, and we need to support them,” she assured reporters.

As with Henry’s position on passports, her stance on exemptions went out the window as she announced on Aug. 23 the rollout of a proof of vaccination card to attend restaurants, movies, and fitness centres. Asked whether there would be health or other exemptions, she said, “The short answer is no.”

Henry is asking faith leaders to encourage “only immunized people” to attend services, but has so far has stopped short of mandating it. “Those are decisions that faith leaders, communities, church groups, choirs, make for themselves; they don’t need an order from me to do that.”

We can only hope she’s more reliable in holding to those words than she was on passports and exemptions.

Most Canadians have apparently been in favour of the ominous notion of mandatory vaccinations since the start of the COVID. But in the past year, ethical debates about forced injections have largely been replaced with discussions on how best to carry them out.

To understand what is so objectionable about mandatory vaccinations, one need only consider Catholic teaching on the primacy of individual conscience and forming one’s conscience accordingly.

As the U.S.-based National Catholic Bioethic Center said in a statement opposing vaccine mandates, “individuals must discern whether to be vaccinated or not in conscience and without coercion.”

The centre quotes from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which said last year, “Practical reason makes evident that vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary. In any case, from the ethical point of view, the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one’s own health, but also on the duty to pursue the common good.”

The CDF’s “Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines” was directed at objections to vaccines due to their connection with abortion-derived cell lines. But its “pursue the common good argument” would certainly suggest the common good is also best served when people aren’t coerced to receive a medical treatment in order to work or go to school. Although no B.C. post-secondary institutions in B.C. have mandated vaccinations to attend class, many Canadian universities have already required students to have received the injection.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix has dismissed concerns about forced vaccinations by saying, “You’re not obliged to get vaccinated in B.C. or anywhere else in Canada, but there are consequences if you don’t.”

As if that lets him off the hook. The fact that someone fears losing their job, their education, or the ability to function like a normal person in society without being singled out, is every bit as coercive as if they were threatened with confinement.

At the very least, says the bioethics centre, protections have to be in place for those with conscience-based concerns.

“If any institution mandates COVID-19 vaccination, the NCBC strongly urges robust, transparent, and readily accessible exemptions for medical, religious, and conscience reasons. Safeguarding the appropriate judgments of conscience (See Catechism 1776―1802, especially 1790) of all individuals affiliated with the institution helps establish trust and avoid undue pressure during the important and personal process of deciding about appropriate medical care and serving the common good.”

There’s little doubt that most people who support mandatory vaccines do so out of concern for human life, whether their own or others. But the Church’s note on vaccines last year emphasized both conscience and human life. Forcing people against their will to receive a vaccination they may have many reasons for avoiding might be in support of life, but it’s absolutely contrary to conscience.

Twitter: @paulschratz
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