§ MR. HOPWOODasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether it be the fact that Dr. Stevens, one of the Inspectors appointed by the Department at the Board of Guardians for St. Saviour's Southwark, recently suggested that in future all children born in the workhouse should be vaccinated before they were allowed to leave, however young they might be, and, in answer to questions, was clearly of opinion that the Guardians had the power to enforce this, even without the consent of the mother upon admission. It was pointed out to him that, in the opinion of some medical men, this would be injurious to the mother, by causing much mental anxiety, and that fatal cases of 265 this kind had been known; but he replied that it would cause the mother still greater anxiety were the child to have small pox; and, whether such a course of proceeding is justifiable by any, and what, law; and, if not, whether he will not at once express disapproval of it?
§ MR. DODSONI find that Dr. Stevens did suggest that children born in the workhouse should be vaccinated before leaving; and that, subject to the opinion of the medical officer in any particular case, this should be done on the sixth day after birth. Dr. Stevens did not express any opinion of his own as to whether the Guardians could enforce this without the consent of the mother; but he did refer to an opinion of the Poor Law Board to the effect that they could. This opinion seems to have been given so far back as 1848.
§ MR. HOPWOODasked whether the order was a legal one?
§ MR. DODSONThe hon. and learned Member asks my opinion on a point of law. My own opinion is that vaccination cannot be enforced in the circumstances if the mother objects.