Adherents of a non-traditional religious group stricken with a measles outbreak were never ordered not to vaccinate their children, a representative has told CTV Montreal.
The measles outbreak at the Mission of the Holy Spirit in Crabtree, Quebec left 10 children stricken with measles after a member contracted the bug on a trip to Disneyland in California.
None of the children affected had been vaccinated against measles.
A group member told CTV Montreal that nobody in the group is forced to reject vaccination but many choose to side with the group’s position, which is to favour what they call a natural approach to healthcare.
“For us, people who have been vaccinated and think that everything is okay and they don't have good habits for alimentation and exercise or something like it, I think that's a false way,” said group member Emmanuel Francoeur.
An expert in non-traditional religious groups, however, said that he believes most in the group likely reject vaccination for reasons of doctrine.
Mike Kropveld of Info-Cult noted, however, that most of the anti-vaccination movement is not from religious groups.
”Most traditional and non-traditional religious groups believe in vaccination. They are distinctly in the minority. There's only a couple of other cases that I’m aware of with religious groups that are anti-vaccination," said Kropveld.
Two branches of the same group – who follow a faith launched by a former Montreal police officer in 1913 - also suffered a significant outbreak in the 1990s, when 22 were afflicted.
One upside is that the group tends to keep away from the larger population, so the chance of a spread is far less severe.
One McGill ethicist said that parents who decide not to vaccinate their children might be working against the greater good.
“Fundamentally parents have the right to make medical decisions for their children, but it's not an unlimited right. And the right is not as broad as it would be as if they were making decisions for themselves,” said Ethicist Margaret Somerville.
