QUOTE: When Ben Franklin weighed whether to immunize his son Francis against smallpox, there was a small risk the child could die of the dose included in the inoculation, known in those days as variolation. Franklin opted against it, to his eternal regret: Smallpox killed the boy in 1736, when he was four. This I mention, Franklin wrote in his autobiography, for the sake of the parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 01:55:50 +0000