If we follow that premise, then advertising or giving alcohol to minors should be illegal too.. and it is!
Like it or not, it sounds like sensible legal reasoning.
https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/documents/Mature_Mi...
Then it would seem to come down to this section:
"Tennessee county health departments follow Tennessee law and provide medical treatment and vaccinations to patients as young as 14 without parental consent if the individual provider determines that the patient meets the definition of a “mature minor” in accordance with Tennessee law."
and what normally constitutes a healthcare professional making that evaluation. If it normally takes that kid's family doctor/PA who has a long standing relationship, access to medical history, etc, then changing from that standard is challenging.
Stepping outside of precedents is hard and risky.
whether a 14 year old is actually able to make that decision is another discussion,
but the issue isn't about government forcing their will, but allowing minors to decide on their own.
Minors can legally give consent to lots of things; the precise scope varies among jurisdictions. Notably, in Tennessee (see citation in toepfactory’s sibling comment), for most medical procedures including vaccinations, minors 14 and up presumptively have the capacity to consent and parental consent is not required.
> Like it or not, it sounds like sensible legal reasoning.
You’ve created a superficially attractive chain of reasoning beginning with false premises.
There's an overwhelmingly large body of law dedicated to this.
The article mentions receiving postcards and other information at the minor's home, which is presumably their guardian's home. Is the state of Tennessee not allowed to address children by their name when informing a household that a minor is due for a vaccine?
> Postcards will still be sent to adults, but teens will be excluded from the mailing list so the postcards are not “potentially interpreted as solicitation to minors,” the report states.
I'm not sure about what the state of Tennessee is allowed to do but our pediatrician addresses reminders, calls, etc to the parents, not the children. Because again, kids can't consent but I can and do on their behalf.
The idea that you can even "solicit" a child to receive vaccines (as if they're an addictive pharmaceutical rather than a baseline preventative measure in the developed world) is farcical. Making the state's medical infrastructure contort itself to avoid referring to children in the second person reeks of politics over public health.
In this case, I think it's used as in "advertising" or "pitching" versus "encouraging illegal behavior" so I think they're using it neutrally vs nefarious.
Even "advertising" and "pitching" are misleading framings. Vaccines are public health policy, notifying people of their eligibility falls squarely within the state's basic obligation to notify its citizens.
Adults can usually tell the difference between can, should, and must but many kids implicitly trust adults, especially those who seem important - see: Milgram experiment for an adult example - so an official postcard may be taken as a demand instead of an opportunity.
Similarly, the police shouldn't talk to your kids without your consent either. It protects everyone.
[1]https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/documents/Mature_Mi...
Alcohol and Tobacco etc are generally regulated substances.
They cannot be obtained even by Adults in all circumstances, for example legislation may prohibit the sale of alcohol at certain venues or require a license to do so. The premise on advertising has less to do with consent I would say, but rather the health and social implications of such substances.
While the issue at hand with the vaccines maybe one of consent, it is a different situation.
This also seems to step farther than this, in its intent to restrict the use of school property to host vaccination drives. This serves no public good as far as I can imagine, it has nothing to do with consent either.
While the concept of consent should be obtained by parents in many situations, the idea that this is solicitation is a long bow and goes in general against the public good.
That said, vaccinations - like any prescription meds - are regulated far beyond alcohol and tobacco to the point where you need approval from specific people to buy them.
Making exceptions for parental consent is extremely risky now and into the future. While some make sense - like in an immediate emergency (ie. car accident, broken bones, etc) - this doesn't meet those criteria.