The question is whether vaccination should be a law. If you would have asked me about meth, heroine, etc., I would have given you a similar answer: I think it shouldn't be illegal, but I still would find it an immoral/stupid thing to do. Just because a society should frown upon something doesn't mean it should be illegal.
Yes, politicians and society on the whole like to make laws about moral issues. That doesn't mean we should support those laws. Just ask my gay neighbors how they feel about sodomy laws here in Texas.
We aren't having this debate because vaccines are successful. We are having this debate because people are crazy and for some reason don't want what is best for their kids. But again, that doesn't mean it should be mandated behavior. You can't just outlaw stupid. That's never going to work.
If you think about it for a second, your last paragraph presumes the answer is "the state" to the question of "who is ultimately responsible for a child." That's fine. There are a lot of good arguments for that. But there are also good arguments to be had to "the parents."
We can both agree that it is stupid and selfish to not vaccinate a child. But whose responsibility is it? Who is at fault if a child endangers another child? I mean both legally and morally. Perhaps there is a case to be made for negligence on the part of the parent. Perhaps even a civil or criminal suit against the parents by the parents of another child affected by the first parents stubbornness. And perhaps we continue not to support such behavior as a society---thinking that not vaccinating your child is only something crazy people do, like joining a cult... but we don't outlaw joining a cult, and we don't outlaw refusing to vaccinate, and we don't because we are a free society were people are allowed to make free choices, even ones that affect other people for the worse. I mean, where are the practical limits about what good decisions we lawfully enforce on people? What about health issues such as diet and living circumstance? Should living with kids in a house like this be illegal? I know a family who does. It's down right despicable. I feel terrible for the children. Should the children be taken away and the parents put in jail? What about parents who take their kids to McDonalds every day, or allow their kids to become obese? What about parents who (more or less) deprive their children of an education, either by shame or by neglect? (I mean, this last one is so much more grievous to me than the sick living conditions.) These aren't easy questions with obvious answers.
