Vaccinations are not mandatory in Canada, and that may surprise some people.

But it is, in fact, a choice.

And every day, more and more Canadian parents are choosing on behalf of their children not to buy in to their province or territory's publicly funded universal vaccination program, despite the overwhelming public pressure to do so.

There are good reasons for this: autism, ADHD, childhood diabetes, intestinal problems and asthma are a few of them.

"By vaccinating so zealously, rather than making children healthier, as school districts, federal health programs, corporate health infrastructures and pediatricians insist, we have traded mostly benign or treatable childhood illnesses for incurable, lifelong, extremely costly disability and disease," says Judy Converse, expert in nutritional healing for children, in her article, Why Do Pediatricians Deny the Obvious?

Critics point out that when vaccinations really became widespread, the diseases themselves, such as polio, were already a thing of the past.

Availability of nutritious food was more likely behind the containment, they say, and not vaccines.

Autism, once regarded as having a purely genetic etiology, has increased in Canada and the US more than a thousand-fold in less than a generation.

The link between autism and vaccination was first publicized in a 1997 study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that looked at the possible link between persistent measles viral infections in children (either from natural disease or live virus vaccine), chronic inflammation of the bowel and damage to the central nervous system in the form of autism.

He began his work after a group of exasperated parents of autistic children with an unknown bowel disorder asked for his help.

The children's histories revealed a common atypical regression, which was unlike classic autism, where the regressed state is established from birth.

The symptoms of autism and the bowel problems began to occur after the children received the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination.

Wakefield has warned the United Kingdom that it is facing an epidemic of autism if it fails to act on the implications of his research and does not discontinue the MMR vaccine in favour of monovalent (single vaccine) forms.

Some would argue the epidemic is already here.

In recent decades, there have been more deaths of infants associated with the hepatitis B vaccine than reported cases of the disease in infants.

Like the current debate over whether nine-year-old girls should be vaccinated for human papillomavirus (HPV) when it is sexually transmitted disease, there have been legal and ethical concerns over the hepatitis B vaccine since it is adults, not infants, engaging in unsafe sex and intravenous drug use who are most at risk.

There seems to be no clear clinical benefit in either case for immunizing the young.

Bonnie Dunbar, a professor of molecular and cell biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who has spent 30 years in new vaccine development, said the major hurdles to doing more safety research on vaccines is the lack of access to original clinical trial data from the drug companies and the "total denial from the pharmaceutical companies that there are any problems."

We get the feeling from our governments too that vaccinations are 100 per cent safe.

But it seems clear that that is not true for everyone.

Research indicates a simple test before vaccination may be all that is required to prevent certain people from being harmed.

Physicians and scientists now devoted to improving the vaccination situation, at the risk of their careers, are pointing out the ethical conflict between vaccine manufacturers and the policymakers of the compulsory, mass-vaccination system and are pleading for more government-funded research on vaccines and the disorders associated with them.

Meanwhile, in the Yukon, by the time the average child is 18 months old it has had nine injections of five different vaccinations, including four for MMR.

"Today, Canadian infants may be injected with up to eight vaccines at one time, starting at the age of two months. By age six, a child can receive up to 41 doses of 11 vaccines with more new vaccines about to be added to the lineup," says the Vaccination Awareness Network, a Canadian-based nonprofit organization.

As more and more parents realize that they have a choice, whether to vaccinate a child is becoming an increasingly difficult decision to make.

Often, it is the chemicals rather than the disease that is the most harmful aspect of vaccinations.

Conventional vaccinations include doses of both the pathogen (such as measles virus) and preservatives, which may include, formaldehyde, acetone, aluminum phosphate and Thimerosal (ethyl mercury), which has also been linked with autism.

Although Health Canada states that all childhood vaccines are now available without Thimerosal, some governments are still using up their paid-for leftovers.

Don't be afraid to ask what's in the syringe.

And don't be afraid to wait -- just because the "recommended" age for a vaccine is six months doesn't mean you can't take a year to do research.

Most often there is no particular reason for a vaccine to be given so young.

There are also natural, safe, nontoxic methods of immunization used by natural health practitioners.

The Hahnemann Clinics in Ottawa and Montreal have been offering free influenza prophylaxis for seven years, with a documented 98-per cent efficacy rate.

But don't take it from me, do your own research. Talk to your doctor or naturopath.

And check out these websites: www.vran.org, www. 909shot.com, www.vaccineinfo.net, www.nvic.org.

Juliann Fraser is a writer living in Whitehorse. Contact her at jul_fraser@yahoo.ca