Ethical Issues For Vaccination

In his book, Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All, Paul A. Offit, M.D. presents us with a thoroughly in-depth look behind the veil of the vaccine controversy. Specifically here in the United States. Offit starts us off with the history of vaccinations giving insights into not just their creation but the controversy that has surrounded them since the beginning. We learn how these questions around safety and personal rights started and who have been the major decision makers in history. We hear about the groups and people that support vaccinations and those that do not.

Requiring vaccinations is a highly debatable topic in the United States today. An article by Ronald Bayer, “The continuing tensions between individual rights and public health,” is one of the most reliable sources in the case study. The author has a PhD from the University of Chicago and focuses his research on issues of social justice and ethical matters. Bayer has also previously been a consultant to the World Health Organization on ethical issues related to public health. This makes him very knowledgeable about the topic and a highly credible source.

California is the only state to require, by law, everyone to receive a vaccination. There are 47 states states allow adults and children to be exempt from receiving vaccinations because of their beliefs. There are 19 states that allow a person not to get vaccinated based on their philosophical reasons. If there is a family that believes they do not need to be vaccinated because they do not think the vaccine is safe, they do not have to get vaccinated. If a family’s religious beliefs go against getting vaccinated, they do not have to get vaccinated.

Problem Immunization is the process when an individual is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, normally through vaccination (WHO, 2015). Individuals of all ages should receive a shot in order to better protect themselves and the individuals around them. In 1809, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to require an immunization policy, since then the entire nation now has federal policies implementing vaccinations to protect the public health (Martindale-Hubbell, 2015). However, these policies are typically generated for the younger generation of the population. Federal Immunization policies in the United States are implemented solely to ensure the safety of oneself and the society as a whole.

Vaccination rules need to be changed to prevent a major outbreak of several or one diseases. The CDC can reduce the number of unvaccinated children by creating strict rules that parents must follow. Therefore; the vaccines will be technically forced upon the child if needed and given proper

As parents, the natural instinct to protect your children will overbear any medical recommendation. However, the choice of not vaccinating your children is selfish to the child as well as others in society. With the proper precautions and research, scheduled vaccinations will have a higher success rate than failure rate. Every parent is entitled to their parental rights in the US, but every person in society is also entitled to their health as well. “The best way to reduce vaccine-preventable diseases is to have highly immune population” (Centers for Disease

The article “Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child” reasons that “Some diseases that once injured or killed thousands of children, have been eliminated completely and others are close to extinction– primarily due to safe and effective vaccines”. Because of vaccines the world today as we know it is slowly becoming safer as more and more diseases are being eradicated. The U.S. has helped in their own way to get rid of diseases. The article “Should Any Vaccines Be Required for Children?” states that “In 1855 Massachusetts passed the first U.S. state law mandating vaccinations for schoolchildren [5], followed by New York (1862), Connecticut (1872), Indiana (1881), and Arkansas (1882).” So as the years went on the U.S. has continually integrated vaccinations for the youth, in this case, it is needed in order to attend

News Flash! Recent outbreaks of what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) call vaccine-preventable diseases demonstrate the effects of the anti-vaccination movement. “Antivaxxers” as they’ve come to be called, as noticed on this author's Facebook page, are a population of parents who make a conscious decision not to vaccinate their children. The goal of this paper is to shed some light on the Antivaxxers, their arguments for choosing not to vaccinate their children, and research that proves the Antivaxxers’ theories are wrong. After all, vaccines aren’t something to be concerned about, they are proven to be effective.

Not only are states allowing medical exemptions, some are offering religious, personal, and philosophical exemptions. With these exemptions, children are at greater risk of contracting a vaccine-preventable disease and transmitting these diseases to children too young to be vaccinated, people with medical contraindications to immunization, and those who do not develop protective responses to vaccines or have vaccine failure. In a study performed by Dr. Daniel A. Salmon and his colleagues, children in the United States with nonmedical exemptions between 1985 and 1992 were 35 times more likely to contract measles than vaccinated children. On a state-wide level, children in Colorado with nonmedical exemptions between 1987 and 1998 were 22 times more likely to contract measles and 5.9 times more likely to contract pertussis than vaccinated children.

Required Immunity Mandatory vaccinations for children in public schools have been the center of much debate since laws were first developed to regulate immunization. Fears from parents about side effects and adverse reactions have steered many away from wanting to vaccinate their children despite the numerous infectious diseases they prevent. These debates have gotten in the way of progression in schools for preventing the spread of disease. To me, the risks of not vaccinating children are far greater than the risks of adverse reactions.

Vaccines are like traffic lights; they ensure the safety of the public, be in heavily crowded areas, like schools, or densely trafficked roads. Traffic lights only work when all people follow the rules. If a car runs a red light, the car runs the risk of killing innocent pedestrians who are complying with the prescribed rules. Vaccines, if not utilized by most people, are ineffective. Even though some parents are concerned over the safety of vaccines, children who go to public schools should not be granted exemptions because vaccines are necessary to prevent outbreaks, children who do not receive vaccines are at risk of disease, and medically compromised children rely on vaccines to prevent disease.

Many people may think that vaccination is a bad thing, that instead of preventing it causes illness, that is not natural. Natural or not, there are many reasons as to why we should vaccinate us and the younger generation. Most of the time children don’t like vaccination because it hurt, but is the responsibility of a parent to seek the wellbeing of his or her child. Vaccination it’s a preventive measure of various diseases. Unfortunately, things like the anti-vaccination movement, the misinformation on the Internet, and the believe that vaccination causes more damage than is worth, have led our society to think that it’s right not to vaccinate.

Modern medicine provides people with the ability to protect themselves from the world’s most fatal diseases. Merely a century ago, it was not uncommon for a child to die as a result of diseases such as polio, pertussis, and tuberculosis. Today, it is highly unlikely for a person to contract these diseases, let alone die from them. However, refusal of vaccinations has been increasing throughout the years due to the anti-vaccination movement. This movement declares mandatory vaccines unconstitutional and vaccinations overall as the cause of autism.

Vaccinations When it comes to vaccinations, there are many different opinions on immunizing a child, especially when that child’s parent has a strong like or dislike towards vaccinating. Immunizations have existed for at least a thousand years and as technology advances more, there are new vaccines being designed to help protect our children from contracting contagious and sometimes deadly diseases, such as Bordetella pertussis, polio, and even influenza. For decades, all 50 states have required that parents vaccinate their children against various diseases, including polio and measles, as a prerequisite to enrolling them in public schools (Ciolli, 2008). Enrollment in public school requires up to date vaccinations in order to protect the children and even the adults from contracting and spreading a disease, possibly causing an epidemic.

First, I am going to talk about the reasons that vaccinations in America should be required. The vaccinations are not just for the individual themselves. They are for the entire community because it prevents a mass disease to spread throughout the house, community, country, or even world. If you get a vaccination, there is less of a chance to spreading it onto other people.