UPDATE:  In case anyone missed it, The Make-A-Wish Foundation REVERSED their decision to require terminally ill children and their families to be fully vaccinated in order to receive their wishes: https://theportlypolitico.com/2021/06/29/decency-prevails-make-a-wish-foundation-rescinds-mask-requirement-for-children/

Read The Foundation’s statement here: https://wish.org/news-releases/reemergence

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The Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants children with terminal medical conditions a “wish,” has announced it will require all wish recipients and their family members to be fully vaccinated against The Virus.

No vaccination, no wish fulfillment.

Naturally, this requirement is absurd, and represents a new low in the race to virtue-signal in The Age of The Virus.  At this risk of sounding macabre and insensitive, The Make-A-Wish Foundation is requiring children who are already dying to take a vaccine against an illness with a 99.5%+ survivability rate.

It’s a purely symbolic action that achieves nothing beyond making it more difficult for dying children to enjoy one last bit of whimsy before they cross over into the arms of Jesus.

In reading the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s website, the benefits of their wishes are manifold:  not only are the children delighted to have their wishes fulfilled, but entire communities come together to make the wishes come true.  From the Foundation’s website:

Wishes can change the odds for children fighting their illness. A wish helps kids look past their limitations, families overcome anxiety and entire communities experience joy. Most importantly, wishes can improve a child’s quality of life.

From reading that bit of fundraising copy, it sounds like, in some cases, the hope that a wish brings can actually help some of the children overcome their illnesses—even beating them.  Pretty much everyone in America knows someone personally—or at least knows of someone within their extended social network—who has had cancer of one form or another.  We also hear miraculous stories all the time of those who survived their cancer against overwhelming odds.

Most famously, President Jimmy Carter had melanoma in 2015, and the cancer had spread to his brain.  He was nearly ninety-one at that point.  I remember telling my Government students that another living US President was very likely near-death.  Given his advanced age and the aggressive nature of his cancer, the odds seemed against the former President, even with the world-class medical treatment he no-doubt receives.

But, here we are in 2021.  President Carter is approaching ninety-seven (his date-of-birth is 1 October 1924).  Last I heard, he is cancer-free, and still getting along about as well as any ninety-six-year old can hope.

How much greater are the odds for an eight-year old than a ninety-six-year old?  Given the hope that a wish brings, maybe that child could beat the odds.  If not, he enjoys some fun and the sweet joy of life, and he and his family and their community come together in love.

Naturally, the wags and Libertarians will point out that The Make-A-Wish Foundation can set whatever parameters and requirements it wants for its wish recipients.  That is certainly true, and I’m not advocating for the government to go busting up the wish-fulfillment monopoly.

But surely we can appeal to the Foundation’s leadership’s decency and commonsense:  why put in place yet another hurdle—and a largely needless one at that—for an already-sick child?  The risks of The Vaccine are still not well-understood; perhaps a sick kid could suffer harm from it.  There are myriad reasons the family of such a child might not want themselves or their child to receive The Vaccine.

One final coda:  I should note that, for all of his failed progressive policies and his abysmal presidency, Jimmy Carter does appear to be a sincere Christian.  I have no doubt that his faith in Christ and his reliance upon Him helped him through his 2015 bout with cancer.