Bodily Autonomy vs. The Greater Good: An Argument With Myself

Bodily autonomy is perhaps the dearest value I hold. It is our most intimate freedom, one that I consider a most sacred and basic right. No one should have anything or anyone put into their body against their will. Whether it’s my choice to have an abortion, my choice to sleep with a new partner, or my choice of what foods I ingest, if it involves my body, it is my choice to make.

It is from this perspective that I feel compelled to share an argument against vaccine mandates.

What? Did you seriously just compare the violation of one’s body to a life-saving vaccine?

Yes.

Welcome to Alice’s Mind, where I have debates with myself about almost everything. Especially subjects as grave as life, death, and personal freedom.

Ssh, Alice. They’re going to think we’re crazy. This topic is loaded. Why say anything about vaccine mandates at all? Why not just keep your mouth shut and let the experts do the talking?

Great questions. Why can’t everyone? Because few of us are experts, yet we will all be affected by the decisions being made today and in the future about this topic. I haven’t seen many other pro-vaccine folks advocating for the right of the unvaccinated to stay that way and without penalty. So, maybe I am shooting us in the foot here, but I think bodily autonomy and personal freedom are worth it. I also hope that maybe if we share our thoughts, we might help facilitate a bit more empathy from both sides.

Empathy? What good is empathy?

Call me an idealist, but I observe that empathy is the most effective way to change a mind.

You really think minds will change about this issue? At this point?

Nope. Everyone has had more than enough time to do their research and make their own decisions. The most I hope for is a little less vitriol, which I see pushing middle-of-the-fencers in the opposite desired direction. Compassion and respect may be slow coaxers, but at least they’re less likely to aggravate the doubling-down of a stance.

[Snorts cynically] Well, I’m not changing my mind. I’m in favor of vaccine mandates, checkpoints, passports, whatever we want to call them. This issue is bigger than ourselves. It’s not a matter of bodily autonomy, it’s a matter of public health. What’s best for us all. A matter of the greater good.

I knew you were gonna say that. I argue that having something injected into your body—something with known side effects, something that cannot be removed—is nothing short of a matter of bodily autonomy. We’re okay talking about bodily autonomy when it comes to things like abortion.

Abortion? Really, you’re bringing abortion into this debate?

Look, we’re talking about having your body invaded by something you don’t want. We’re talking about having a medical procedure done that carries risk—risk if you get it, risk if you don’t. We’re talking about something being inserted into your body that perhaps you’re not ready for, for whatever your personal reasons are. Maybe your reasons are health-related. Maybe it’s a timing issue for you. Maybe you simply don’t want it and you shouldn’t have to explain your reasons why. The issue here is the same: Bodily autonomy. Personal choice. Sense of agency.

But it’s not just about you and your freedom of choice. It’s about my right to live as well as yours.

100%. That’s the same argument used by the pro-life. It’s not just about you and your freedom of choice, it’s about someone else’s right to live.

Wait, are you saying you’re pro-life?

No! I am adamantly pro-choice and I find it dazzlingly hypocritical how many others are as well until it comes to the vaccine.

Omg, are you serious?! These issues are so different, I don’t know if we can have this conversation.

I understand. They are different issues, and I’m not trying to say that abortion and vaccines are comparing apples to apples. I’m saying the principles behind the arguments for each are the same: your right to bodily autonomy and others’ right to live.

And it’s the anti-vaccine folx who are being hypocritical! Now they’re all, “My body, my choice!” but they’re still against abortion?

I completely agree. The folks against vaccine mandates who are also against the pro-choice stance are definitely being hypocritical. I’m suggesting we are just as hypocritical if we say that others’ lives matter more than personal freedom, but only when it comes to vaccines. They’re making the same argument.

But my decision to have an abortion or not affects nobody but myself—and the fetus, if we’re going to say that it’s someone else, but at least it’s just one (not counting multiples) and it’s inside me. COVID, on the other hand, goes outside every time we breathe, affecting everybody!

Totally hear you. That makes all the rational sense in the world. I wish more people would see it that way and get vaccinated, because I agree with you. I am pro-vaccine. It clearly saves lives. States with higher counts of vaccinated people are having far fewer deaths than states where the majority are unvaccinated. I got Moderna myself, both shots, and I’ve encouraged my loved ones to please get vaccinated, too. I’ve shared articles about the regret of the unvaccinated who are dying in hospitals begging for the vaccine too late. I don’t want it to be too late for the people I love, or anyone.

Then how can you be against vaccine mandates? People are dumb. They don’t know what’s good for them, and it’s science. Fucking science. Sometimes we need to put our personal beliefs aside to do what’s good for everyone, not just ourselves.

Oh, you don’t need to tell me. “God is my vaccine,” ha! I guess God wants a lot of his faith-vaccinated followers up in heaven with him.

Okay, now you’re being rude and risk alienating the other side. Talk about empathy.

Yes, you’re right. Sorry, I’ll pull it back.

@DanCrenshawTX on Instagram (Wish you’d change your stance on abortion, Congressman.)

Okay, so why are you against vaccine mandates?

Because bodily autonomy simply matters more. Personal freedom matters more. The greater good fallacy has been used by nearly every villainous dictator in history. If more cities enact a vaccine mandate, and if it ever gets to a statewide or federal level, it establishes a dangerous precedent.

But my life shouldn’t be endangered because other people don’t want to get the vaccine.

If you’re vaccinated, why are you so worried?

Because you can still get COVID even if you’re vaccinated!

[Raises eyebrows pointedly]

Are you seriously trying to tell me—?! Surely you know your odds of dying go way, way down if you happen to be one of those vaccinated people with a breakthrough case.

I know. Again, I am pro-vaccine. I am also pro-bodily autonomy—pro-choice, if you will. I’m just saying that I understand the other side. This is the common argument they’re making and I understand their logic. I’ve seen the news they’re watching—

Fake news! FOX news! Facebook news!

—and I can understand their reasoning. Many aren’t incentivized to dig deeper or learn from our news sources. They think ours is fake news. We all think our news sources are the credible ones. Do you trust The New York Times? They don’t. Do you trust FOX news? No, you don’t. Both parties think the other is obscuring or twisting the truth.

But SCIENCE.

I know, I love science. But when you weaponize that word to make the unvaccinated feel stupid, you’re not winning people over. You’re doing the opposite. Do you really want more people to be in increasing opposition to science?

No.

Also, part of science is experimentation. I can understand why some people don’t want to participate in the experiment that is the vaccine. It’s not yet FDA-approved. Getting the vaccine makes people like us feel safer. So far, that tracks, but for others, the idea of getting a brand-new vaccine makes them feel unsafe, and I think that’s understandable. Everybody is striving for safety.

I don’t think it’s about safety to them—it’s about belligerence.

Well, that’s a personal judgment call. For some, yes, it’s probably about belligerence. Rebellion to the Woke. But for many, it’s about caution. Science, in fact. Whether we like it or not, some people have had adverse reactions to the vaccine, even death. It’s rare, but it happens. I can understand why people might be fearful of it, can’t you?

Yeah. But the odds of death are just so much higher with COVID. I don’t understand how people would rather risk being the one-in-a-million who dies of a vaccine rather than the one-in-WAY-less to die of COVID.

I know. But I think that risk should be a personal choice.

But again, what about my choice? What about my right to live? The unvaccinated are endangering me and everybody else—the immunocompromised!

The vaccinated are spreading COVID, too. As you pointed out.

But at least the vaccinated are doing their part to try and protect strangers and loved ones. If you refuse the vaccine—which is free—it’s like you’re not even trying.

I hear ya. There are many reasons people don’t want to get vaccinated. Some can’t. Speaking of the immunocompromised, some people, like Pete Parada, the drummer from The Offspring, can’t get the vaccine because of an autoimmune disorder. Others can’t get it because of severe allergic reactions like anaphylactic shock—there’s a reason for that 30 minute wait period after each dose. Should these people be banned from restaurants and their workplaces because of a health condition they cannot help?

Maybe not them, like if you have a legitimate medical reason. But then you should have a doctor’s note saying so.

What about patient privacy? Humans have an ugly history of discriminating against who they deem healthy and contagious, however irrational. We also have an ugly history of forcing medical procedures on those we deem unfit to make decisions for themselves.

What, like the forced sterilization of Black people?

Pamphlet extolling the benefita of selective sterilization in North Carolina, 1950. | North Carolina State Documents Collection/State Library of North Carolina

Yes. Other minorities, too, as well as people with disabilities, those labeled mentally deficient or promiscuous, people who were poor—

Omigod, I can’t believe you’re going there! That’s so different!

Is it? You’re arguing that anti-vaxxers are too dumb to know what’s good for them, so they should be forced to be vaccinated if they want to participate in society—vaccinated with something that only time will be able to tell the long-term side-effects of.

Yeah, that’s totally different than eugenics. And besides, no one is being forced. It’s not like you go to jail for refusing the vaccine.

If you’re barred from parts of society that facilitate your survival, like your job or a restaurant if you don’t have a full kitchen to cook groceries in, that is arguably a use of force. Vaccinations aren’t available to everybody and to ban people from their places of employment and sustenance because they cannot or choose not to get an experimental vaccine violates their right to personal autonomy. It is a privilege to be vaccinated.

Um, it’s a privilege not to be vaccinated. No one wants to be part of some experimental vaccine, but it’s our duty. Again, because this is bigger than just us. It’s for the greater good of all.

You wanna talk about the greater good? Watch how vaccine mandates unravel that notion real fast.

What do you mean?

@SamBraslow on Twitter, Via VICE — @SamBraslow on Twitter, Via *VICE*

Backlash. We saw what happened with mask mandates. When we coerced and shamed people into wearing masks, what happened? There was a rise of anti-maskers protesting in public spaces.

Then the police need to enforce it.

You want to abolish them.

Defund, not abolish.

And since we’re now talking about crime and police, here’s another aspect of the backlash: a black market boom. I personally know people who have paid doctors for fake vaccination cards and I bet you do, too. Forgeries are likely to make headlines soon as more places of business require “proof” of vaccination, regardless of whether one has already had COVID or not. These requirements aren’t likely to incentivize more people to get vaccinated. They’re more likely to push people to other businesses, aggravate outrage over feeling controlled by Big Brother, and cause people to dig in their heels and commit crimes.

Sure, some people are going to lie and commit forgery. But we still need to make vaccines mandatory. Eventually, the criminals will be caught.

Maybe. But by whom? 57% of Denver police officers have not been vaccinated and 72% say they don’t plan to either, even upon condition of employment. Other police departments are sure to feel similarly. If our law enforcement so disagrees with the law that they’re willing to quit over it, who will enforce the law? And not just this law, but laws against theft, rape, murder?

Well, like I said, I’m for defunding the police anyway.

Okay. Then how do you plan on enforcing these vaccine mandates?

It should be up to the businesses to decide and enforce.

You know, I actually agree with you. I think that every privately owned company has the right to conduct their business as they wish. This means I support their right to refuse service.

Well, I’m glad we agree on that.

So you also agree that, say, a bakery has the right to refuse service to clients ordering cake for a gay wedding?

Omg, that is so different!

We’re talking about the right of individual businesses to refuse service according to their own codes of conduct, which they get to independently enforce. Correct?

Yes, but—

I think refusing to bake cakes for a gay wedding is outrageous discrimination, so I understand why people think refusing service to non-vaccinated customers is also outrageous discrimination.

They’re different issues, this is public health!

I know. Again, I’m trying for empathy of principle here, not exactitude of circumstance. We both think private businesses should have the right to do what they feel is best for their employees and customers. I’m just saying that I want my right to bodily autonomy respected, too. This means I respect someone’s right not to get vaccinated and I also respect the right of a private business not to serve them.

Okay, so you do agree with vaccine mandates?

No. I agree with an individual business’s right to refuse service, based on vaccination status or otherwise. It’s douchey, but I respect it. A city-wide mandate, on the other hand, like what New York is doing and LA officials are debating, I am very much against.

Okay, well, I hear your points and I’ll think about them. My gut still says it’s better to require vaccines in most public spaces rather than not. I hear you on bodily autonomy and hypocrisy and all that, but I’m just not sure I agree that it’s more important than the greater good.

I respect that. Can I leave you with one more thing to ponder? Actually, I lied, two things. Sorry.

Okay… I’m a little on brain overload, but okay.

I know, me too, we’ve wasted nearly an entire day on a contentious debate that probably no one will even read, especially this far.

Yep. We are in agreement about that.

Okay, one: Another demographic that shouldn’t be forced to get vaccinated besides those with health risks are those who have already survived COVID.

But it’s proven, survivors can get COVID again.

But it’s proven: so can the vaccinated. Both unvaccinated survivors and vaccinated people who never had COVID can contract it and spread it. The odds of both parties’ survival are just way better with natural antibodies and/or vaccination, and their symptoms way less if they do get COVID.

But the CDC says that survivors should still be vaccinated.

Yes, the data shows they’ll benefit abundantly. After just one dose of an mRNA vaccine, survivors’ immunity equaled or exceeded the level in uninfected people after two doses. Without any doses, people who have had COVID still have immunity.

Okay. What’s your second point? I’m sick of talking about this.

Meeeee, too. My second point is that mandating vaccines or requiring them for participation in public life sets a fucking dangerous precedent.

Yeah, you mentioned that. How so?

Right now, you think the COVID vaccine should be mandatory. We have a Democratic president in office whose views you align with and whose team of scientists you trust. So when Democratic leaders advocate for vaccine mandates, you tend to be in agreement with them. What happens when it’s a Republican leader mandating a vaccine or other health procedure you don’t trust? Hate to go here again, but what happens if Roe v Wade is overturned? You’ll be crying, “My body, my choice!”

But that’s a medical procedure you opt for, not against.

Either way, how can you not see that the principle is the same? Bodily agency. Freedom of choice. Personal autonomy. Once the precedent is established, it could be used for mandates way scarier than the COVID vaccine.

But it’s not like mandated vaccines are even anything new! You have to show proof of vaccination for travel, for certain jobs, to go to school…

You’re absolutely right. Vaccine requirements for certain diseases under certain circumstances is nothing new. But let’s break that nothing-new argument down. Only 11% of Americans traveled overseas from 2009-2019. (And most of them went to Europe, not places with vaccine requirements like parts of Africa, Asia, and South America.) International travel is a privilege. Few of us have jobs requiring international travel, so for the vast majority of Americans, such travel is optional. You’re wanting unoptional vaccine mandates to apply to everyday necessities.

I’d hardly call going to the gym or a concert a necessity. By your logic, those are privileges as well.

I agree. But what about restaurants and cafes? Workplaces? Will grocery stores be next?

A grocery store is an essential service. I don’t think mandates will apply to essential services.

What about people too poor to afford a home with a full kitchen? Like people who live in bachelor-style studio apartments without stoves or ovens and rely on eating out at restaurants?

That’s gotta be a minority of people.

They exist.

Okay, so maybe mandates shouldn’t apply to essential services, of which restaurants I guess are one. But I think mandates should apply to places like indoor stadiums, festivals, and the like. Not essentials, because everyone has to eat, go to the DMV, the hospital, etc.

Aren’t those places where COVID might spread the most? Are you saying vaccine mandates should not apply to essential service places, only places of privilege?

[Rolls eyes] Omigod.

Via National Conference of State Legislatures

And to your point about vaccine requirements for schools? I think we can both agree that public education is an essential and not a privilege, at least in the U.S. All 50 states allow medical exemptions to school vaccination requirements, and 44 states and Washington, D.C. offer religious and/or philosophical exemptions. The very same should apply to the COVID vaccine, at the very least.

But this is a worldwide pandemic. Surely drastic occurrences like this require drastic measures.

This is a coronavirus we’re talking about. Not smallpox. Have you heard of case fatality rate?

What, is that like how many people die out of how many cases?

Exactly. The case fatality rate (CFR) is the proportion of people who die among the total who contract the disease. For example, the CFR of smallpox is 30%. 30% of people who get smallpox will die. The CFR of Ebola is around 50%. Know what the global case fatality rate of COVID-19 is? 2.12%.

Wait… That’s it? I thought it was way higher.

Look at it this way—over 50 million people died of the Spanish Flu and only—

I think it’s more PC now to call it the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.

Source: CDC, Johns Hopkins, OurWorldinData, Via Independent

If we’re being picky, it lasted beyond 1918. Anyway. Over 50 million people died of the Spanish Flu over a two-year period. We’re over a year and a half into COVID and you know how many people have died? 4.3 million.

But that doesn’t change that people are dying! So what if it’s only 2.12% or 4.3 million? If we can save more people from dying of COVID, we should encourage vaccination!

I agree. Truly, I do. Again, I am pro-vaccine. I just don’t think they should be mandated. I think mandates will backfire and establish precedents I shudder to imagine the ramifications of. I also think they’re an overreaction to the actual proportion of danger.

Okay, we’re going in circles here. Neither one of us is going to change our mind. I—

Actually, I am quite open to changing my mind. You know what would change my mind about vaccine mandates? Numbers.

What do you mean?

If COVID-19 had the case fatality rates of smallpox or Ebola—30% and 50%, respectively—I’d be a lot more open to a temporary vaccine mandate.

Well maybe the CFR of COVID is so low because of the vaccine.

Maybe you should look at the CFR of COVID before the vaccine was available. It was 2.9-3%.

So you’re saying if it was higher, you’d be pro-mandate? Even though vaccine mandates would still violate your precious bodily autonomy?

Yes, because the numbers would be high enough to justify such a drastic measure—again, on a temporary basis and with certain exceptions made for medical reasons.

What about religious or philosophical reasons?

Only if there are equally drastic measures such as enforced home lockdowns and compulsory tests to participate in outside life until everyone who wanted the vaccine had the chance to have it.

Talk about a violation of personal freedom!

If 50% of Americans were dying, I think few would argue against it. Those that would deserve the natural culling they’d get. Everyone has the right to die.

Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Martin van Meytens

DAMN!

I know, that’s harsh. My point is that drastic circumstances may sometimes call for drastic measures, but right now, COVID-19 with its 2.12% case fatality rate just isn’t drastic enough to be worth establishing a precedent that will very likely be abused by future governments.

You’re a stone-cold b*tch, Alice, you know that?

Yep.

And my mind is not changed.

I know. Mine, neither. But I really appreciate you hearing me out. I’ve shared what would change my mind, is there anything that might change yours?

… I mean, you make a good point about establishing a precedent. And yeah, I can see how hypocrisy might not be the best way to win friends and influence people. I hadn’t thought about how this issue parallels the principles of abortion and discrimination. They are SO not the same thing, but I see your points. But no. I’m not sure there’s anything that can change my mind. Vaccine mandates are a good idea because vaccines work. The sooner everyone gets vaccinated, the sooner we can all stop wearing masks and fearing lockdowns. The sooner we can all get back to normal life.

Cheers to that.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’ll try to be a little less condescending and pissed off at people who are vaccine-hesitant. I still think most are just being belligerent, but maybe some are just scared. I’ll try to keep that in mind.

Then our work here is done.

Good. I can’t even tell you how sick I am of talking about this. Just get vaccinated, people!

I mean, it really would help if done of their own free will, because gawddamn, I’m sick of talking about this, too!