Alive at 60 years of age!

Well today is my 60th birthday, decided to take the day off and enjoy myself, but as usual I am unable to sleep much later than when I usually get up for work.

I never expected to get here, to be frank, because of my chronic leukemia, but thanks to some great pharmaceutical products, albeit very expensive, here I am.

Am reading a book about health care technology and high costs, Taming the Beloved Beast, by Dan Callahan (http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9016.pdf) , and am wondering, given the need to curb Medicare costs, whether I will be able to afford those same meds should I make it to retirement age........it's not up to me, but my Higher Power...I am going to continue to live life one day at a time...and enjoy each day the Sun shines somewhere.

Hey I always wanted to grow old gracefully, but I didn't grow up gracefully nor did I handle middle age too well, so the odds are I may not be the peaceful Quaker curmudgeon I want to be, but I will certainly try. Need to learn to let my arrogance and anger go and continue to spend some time each day in prayer and meditation.

I am trying to deal with my anger re: the inability of the Obama administration to get meaningful health care reform passed, not health insurance reform, and then the escalation of Vietnamistan...

Peace to you all, Wayne

PS Bah humbug, I detest the commercialization of the pagan solstice holiday, stolen by "Christians" to perpetuate their divine birth myth....

Religious objection to childhood vaccines

Some Quaker friends recently posted on Facebook that they have refused some (maybe all?) vaccines recommended for their children on the basis of religious exemption. This got my righteous anger up. Disclaimer here, I am a retired pediatrician, and a member of the medical establishment.

When I was in practice I had a few parents who refused vaccines despite my careful explanation of the benefits and risks. One that I distinctly remember was an Hassidic Jewish mother who claimed, although there was no basis for vaccine refusal in their doctrine, that a rabbi had advised her to follow her conscience on this. I thought this odd, but at least she claimed to have pursued some discernment for what she claimed had felt was God's will for her children.

There is certainly nothing in the rudimentary doctrine of Friends that supports not vaccinating our children. Medical care is a gift from our Creator, improving and saving lives. Picking and choosing which medical care to help their children seems not to be based on true spiritual discernment. I think rather my friends have gotten caught up in the Internet-enabled anti-vaccine movement. I asked them to seek true discernment and accused them of being less than truthful.

Another issue with vaccine refusal is the jeopardizing of others health. Vaccines are a public health concept. We get vaccinated to protect ourselves and others. When particularly susceptible children who do not have protection against a particular illness either because of age, underlying illness (AIDS, cancer) or lack of efficacy of their own vaccine (none are perfect) catch something from the unvaccinated, well that is just wrong. When we protect our own children we help others as well.

Although claiming a religious exemption might have legal grounds, I am not clear that it has moral grounds.

Who would Jesus vaccinate?