February 11, 2015 - Page 2 of 2 - ChaddsFordLive.com

The Empowered Parent: Can parents of unvaccinated kids be sued?

There’s a lot of anger and fear out there driving the most recent flare up of a vaccination debate that periodically consumes in the media. I’ve seen many talking heads yelling out that parents who don’t vaccinate their children should be sued. Let’s explore.

Can a parent be sued for not vaccinating their children? Of course-this is America. You can get sued for anything. Seriously, though, you probably won’t, but it’s not impossible.

Put very simply, there are two major hurdles to litigation: Proving duty to protect another from disease, and the cost of litigation.

To be held liable for injuring another person, it must be “more likely than not” that your actions caused their injury, and that you failed in a responsibility to protect them. The law doesn’t generally recognize a duty to prevent injury to another, unless there is a special relationship.

Exemptions to vaccine mandates would not exist if they were deemed unreasonably risky for public health by the legislatures. So arguably a person with an exemption could not be found responsible for the spread of disease by exercising a right provided by the very people that are charged with protecting the public health.

If a suit survives all of that and progresses to trial, it will be a battle of the experts spouting off science and debunking biases and lack of evidence. It will be expensive to prove who the injured person caught the disease from. Experts will disagree by testimony on whether the infection was the direct cause of injury. Medical examinations will be done. This case is not going to be cheap.

There’s a huge difference between having a viable legal theory and finding a lawyer to bring your case. Medical malpractice victims can tell you all about it. The cost associated with a case like this makes it highly unlikely a person will find a lawyer. When that fails, they may wonder how hard it can be to write a complaint and do depositions themselves. Or they call MSNBC to talk about the injustice of it all and we’re back to the talking heads.

And what about the flipside: What are the rights of parents who choose not to vaccinate, if their child contracts an illness from a vaccinated child? Basically, it’s the same legal analysis, but they’re going to have an even harder time. The overwhelming weight of popular scientific and medical consensus is on the side of vaccination being a reasonable and expected choice. Whether these experts are ultimately right or wrong, the court defers to them.

So where does that leave us? If a parent chooses to exercise the right not to vaccinate their children, they should consult with an expert about their exemption. All parents should take reasonable precautions to prevent spread of disease. For example, don’t hang out with your friends who just returned from Disneyland for a while. Don’t bring Junior to daycare with the sniffles and a fever after hopping off the plane from that international vacation. Keep recently vaccinated kids away from unvaccinated kids and infants. Wash hands frequently. That kind of stuff —good ole’ common sense — should be the hallmark of Empowered Parenting.

The bottom line is, parenting is hard. Even when we have differences of opinion or parenting style, we should recognize that every parent is making choices with the best interest of their children in mind. Truly Empowered Parents make decisions that are not based in fear. It may sound funny coming from a lawyer, but litigation should be a last resort. Common sense, personal responsibility and education are the best tools we all have to avoid being sued or being injured.

About Valerie Borek

Valerie Borek, Esq. is a Delaware County native with a passion for empowering people. She believes a strong family is a building block to strong communities. She founded her law firm to serve families with a focus on parenting and family rights. As a mother herself, she knows that parents face tough choices and need support. Valerie is grateful to be in a profession where she can guide people through life’s circumstance so they can focus on the things in life that matter most. Valerie finds her greatest motivation in helping families strengthen their health and wealth. These two foundational areas of life resonate through the day-to-day and when we feel comfortable and secure in these spheres, we are free and enabled to create and nurture the lives we desire. Visit her at www.vboreklaw.com

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Deans’ List Students

School & Education

The following students from the greater Chadds Ford area earned academic recognition form their colleges and universities.

• Haithm Abdou and Daphne Liang, both doctor of pharmacy students, were named to the fall 2014 dean’s list at University of the Sciences. Selection for this award is based on completing and passing all assigned courses with no grade below a C and attaining an academic average of at least 3.4 for courses taken in the fall semester of 2014.

• Allen Dunlap earned dean’s list honors at Saint Joseph’s University for the Fall 2014 semester. Allen is majoring in finance. Students must achieve a grade point average of 3.5 or above, a B or greater in all their classes, and complete at least 15 credits to earn dean’s list status for a semester.

• Jason D. Smiddy, whose major is general engineering, has been named to the dean’s list at Clemson University for the fall 2014 semester. To be named to the Dean’s List, a student achieved a grade-point average between 3.50 and 3.99 on a 4.0 scale.

• Shannon Dalle Pazze was named to the Widener Law dean’s list. Students named to the list earned a grade point average in the top 20 percent of their class and division for the semester.

• Patrick H. Scharr was named to the President’s List at Clemson University for the fall 2014 semester. Scharr is majoring in general engineering. To be named to the list, a student must achieve a 4.0 (all As) grade-point average.

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

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The Rabbi’s Study: Dealing with conflict

Religion Today

While of course the Hebrew Bible is the central story of the Jewish people, the richness of our tradition and of our essence stems from the fact that we read it as a foundational text supporting a framework woven through with all of the other stories that we have written and discovered and learned and lived since our tradition tells us that God gave the Torah to the Jewish people on top of Mount Sinai.

One of the most compelling tales is a story in the Talmud usually called the Oven of Achnai. (B. Baba Metzia 59 a-b). The beginning of the story relates a mundane, almost bureaucratic process by which the rabbis sought to define what kind of oven would be legally permissible and what kind would not be. Then it gets interesting.

Being rabbis, the conversation becomes heated and contentious and one rabbi, Rabbi Eliezar finds himself at odds with his colleagues. After marshalling all of the textual and logical arguments in his favor, he finds himself frustrated with his inability to sway the opinions of his fellow rabbis. Finally, he abandons the tools of his scholarship and begins to invoke divine support for his point of view.

Indignantly, he proclaims, “If the law agrees with me, let this carob tree prove it!” The carob tree in question immediately flies out of the ground and lands some distance away. Remarkably, his colleagues are unfazed and their intransigence continues unbowed.

Trying again, Rabbi Eliezar exclaims, “If the law agrees with me, let this river prove it!” No sooner do these words leave his mouth than does the nearby stream begins to flow backwards. Again his colleagues observe this extraordinary feat, but they do not change their opinion, insisting that theirs was an argument of law, not of fluid dynamics.

This clash of Rabbi Eliezar’s fantastic powers and his adversaries’ legalistic intractability continues until Rabbi Eliezar invokes heaven itself, eliciting a divine voice which thunders from above that all matters of ritual law are to be decided according to the judgment of Rabbi Eliazer.

Unbelievably, the rabbis resist even this divine voice, explaining that, since the Torah is no longer in heaven but has now been granted to the Jewish people on earth, the rabbis and not the heavens now bear the responsibility to interpret the law.

The voice from heaven laughs and admits defeat and the rabbis declare their victory over Rabbi Eliezar, destroying the oven tiles that he had argued so strongly were ritually appropriate.

This story is not an easy one and there are certainly many ways to read it. Some see it as license for human beings to interpret divine law. Some see it as a cry for even the greatest sages to exhibit humility in their interactions with their colleagues. Reading further in the Talmud, though, it becomes clear that it is really about the meaning of community.

After the heavenly voice cedes victory to the rabbis who had opposed Rabbi Eliezar, their triumphal elation is so intoxicating that they vote to expel Rabbi Eliezar from the community. When Eliezar receives this news, his distress casts a pall over the entire natural world: one third of all of the produce in the fields withers and dies and a tidal wave sweeps through the sea.

While this story starts with a discussion about ovens, it is not a story about ovens. While it describes a conflict about legal determinations, it is not about legal process. While it provides the details about the humbling of a great sage, it is not really about humility. This story is a cautionary tale about the right way and the wrong way for a community to deal with conflict.

It teaches us that the opinions and arguments on every side of a conflict might be so strong that even a heavenly arbiter might be ambivalent about which side should prevail. Nevertheless, in the end, it teaches us that if the conflict is resolved with a triumphant group of winners and an alienated body of losers then the entire community will suffer.

Bringing this story into the present day, when we are experiencing so many societal challenges and when politicization and alienation have led to such distrust and conflict, it would do us good to remember that often maintaining peace within our community is a higher aspiration than convincing others that we are in the right.

About Rabbi Eric M. Rosin

Rabbi Eric Rosin began his professional career as an attorney in Los Angeles serving the entertainment industry, but discovered he needed to be doing something he was passionate about. He left the practice of law and began studying for ordination at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. After ordination, Rabbi Rosin served for two years as the assistant rabbi of Temple Beth-El in Richmond, Va., then assumed the pulpit at Kesher Israel Congregation in West Chester, Pa. in 2004.

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Mind Matters — Meandering mid-winter musings

Health

At the beginning of February, we have Groundhog Day, which actually harkens back to Imbolc, the “cross quarter” day between winter solstice and spring equinox. In times before Europe was called Europe, people marked the day with bonfires of the greens they had festooned their houses with for the winter solstice.

No one likes Punxsutawney Phil to see his shadow, but whether he does or not, spring does not arrive until March 21 anyway. And actually I am one of the few people in the Philadelphia environs who likes winter, especially a snowy one.

Yes, I understand all the downsides of snow: the hazards of driving, the shoveling, and so on. However, admit it, is not icy rain and sleet that slicks sidewalks and streets and cuts out power so much worse?

Back to snow: perhaps in our heart of hearts, we all want a good snowstorm. Why else would snowmen proliferate on Christmas cards and decorations?

You know the French toast phenomenon of everyone running to the grocery store for milk, bread, and eggs at the hint of the forecast of snow? Perhaps that is because secretly, everyone would like to be snowed in. The inner child of snowflakes past really wants a snow day. A day to, after the shoveling is done, sip hot cocoa or — make a snowman.

There are places where there are no winters, no change of seasons. But there must be for everyone a time for interior seasons — shifts and changes. Winter, for those of us lucky enough to have it, can be a time for hibernation, a going inward to reflect on what is growing within us to blossom in its own good time.

Every farmer — every gardener — knows that, in winter there are all sorts of life germinating within the soil. Trees and plants are not dead, but dormant. And that sleep is necessary also for the nutrients in the earth to flourish. However, snowy winters are even better. Snow, in fact, is the farmer’s friend. A good snow that melts slowly helps the ground to gain a greater amount of nutrients, giving sustenance to plants, trees and seeds.

Likewise for us. What if we saw snow as a reminder for us to slow down, hibernate a little and replenish ourselves with some “dormancy” to get re-vitalized. We live in a 24/7 world. We can be reached anytime, at any moment. Anywhere. We do not depend on seasons or solstices for marking our time or our work. We can leave the lights on all night and we can work all night. Indoor plumbing, electric lights, and an automatic thermostat have made it possible for us to disconnect from earth’s cycles. So snow comes along and impedes our disconnect from our true nature of dependence on nature.

Despite the downsides, snow brings us quiet. Indeed science shows that snow, because of its insulating qualities, actually does muffle sound. What if we tuned into that quiet and allowed ourselves to savor some quiet within as well?

We are so fascinated with snow globes, perhaps we do indeed sometimes fantasize being in one — Boston notwithstanding.

* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at MindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to www.drgajdos.com

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.

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