Life Is All About Making Right Decisions At Right Time

Mandatory vaccination is an extremely controversial topic because it violates constitutionally protected right to practice religion and personal beliefs in the absence of the true health emergency (First Amendment of the Constitution). The new law destroys the individual rights of parents to make voluntary decisions in the best interest of their children in the health care decisions and diminishes the role of parents in upbringing and educating their children (Skov).

Along the same idea, the justices also stated that the rights of the people are only applicable when they go along with the common good. Jacobson was attempting to exercise his rights that could have led to potential harm to others. The Court also stated in the ruling that the common good “applies to the right of society to protect itself from epidemics and that legislative bodies have authority to choose the means toward that end” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). The final statement in the ruling of Jacobson v. Massachusetts was that the police power had to adhere to four standards to determine if the 14th amendment is void when it comes to the good of public health. First, the issue, which in this case was vaccination, has to be a necessary measure to aid officials in stopping a disease outbreak. Second, the issue has to be reasonable and lead to desirable results. The third standard is whatever the public health officials propose, the benefit must outweigh the hassle to citizens. And finally, the issue should follow the ethical principle of nonmaleficence and should not cause harm to anyone.

Sometimes life lessons are learned the hard way. Unfortunately for me, this is how I learned mine. I do not mean to make this sad and depressing, but this is the truth.

In America, people have the right to practice any religion. Sometimes there are religious beliefs that interfere with what the government wants people to do. If parents do not want their children to have shots because it is against their religion or philosophical reason, there are many states in the U.S. that excuse them from having to get their children vaccinated. “All 50 states issue medical exemptions, 48 states

Case Scenario 1: It has become necessary to ration a vaccine for a contagious disease. There is only enough vaccine available to cover 75% of the U.S. population. It is necessary to determine an appropriate method for doing this. Analyze this case by applying each of the theories of Utilitarianism, Rights-based, Justice-based and Virtue-based ethics as discussed in Module 2. (20 points)

It takes away our rights protected by the first amendment by forcing people to inject things in their bodies that go against their religious, philosophical and spiritual beliefs. Conversely, the only exemption for not getting the vaccinations is the medical exemption, which is almost impossible to get even if you had a previous severe adverse side effect to another vaccine.

An ethical consideration that is important to recognize is respect for persons. This means to respect others’ beliefs. If the individual cannot be vaccinated due to religion, then he or she has the right to opt out from the procedure with valid confirmation. This relates to the policy because one of the exemptions is religion. Also, if the person refuses to be vaccinated, then law enforcement cannot use physical violence to force the individual to be vaccinated.

For years, the topic of mandated vaccinations for children has been a highly debated topic among health professionals, educators, parents, and government officials. Currently, the Center for Disease Control recommends that children between the ages of zero and six years should receive twenty-eight doses of ten different vaccines (ProCon.org, 2014). Although there is no federal law that requires that children get vaccinated, all fifty states require certain vaccinations for children before entering public schools (ProCon.org, 2014). These requirements often vary from state to state. All states in the United States allow for medical exemptions to the mandated vaccinations, while forty-eight allow religious exemptions and nineteen allow philosophical exemptions (ProCon.org, 2014). Mandated vaccination has remained a highly controversial topic as it questions whether a person should be able to make choices about his or her own body or if rules can be imposed that mandate vaccinations for the potential greater good of the public’s overall health.

Jeffrey Kluger believes that “Vaccines save lives; fear endangers them. It's a parent need to keep hearing.” (“TIP Talk!” 2016) Vaccinations relate to the first amendment for more than one reason. One of the reasons being the first amendment relates to vaccinations because of freedom of religion. If a religion does not allow you to get vaccinated, and there is a mandatory vaccine for a child within that religion; you are breaking the first amendment’s laws of the constitution (“Vaccination & religious exemptions” 2018). A vaccine is a substance used to provide immunity against one or several diseases. Vaccinations were first

Recent outbreaks of measles and whooping cough have brought the vaccination controversy to the forefront of health safety within the United States. This could be primarily due to the fact the United States has never had a mandatory vaccination policy in effect. Each state has its own immunization policies, which the states govern and regulate. All fifty states do require up-to-date vaccines to attend public schools, including many colleges and universities. There are however, some exemptions granted. A person who opts out of being vaccinated should understand the danger, with a decision that could result in death. Despite the fact that governing of exemptions are not intense enough to justify the liberal use of them, preventing a disease

Historically, people have been required to receive vaccinations on a mandatory basis specifically for attending school. The Constitution states that people have the right to refuse medical treatment. However, under the 10th Amendment, each state has a right to mandate protocols such as immunization for public safety (Rosenbaum, 2010).

One of the most important decisions you can make for your child is whether or not to have them vaccinated. Not giving your child immunity to lethal infections based on personal or religious beliefs you have can endanger your child and many others. Recently, outbreaks of measles have occurred that have caused people to question what the role of the government is in this health issue (CDC, 2016). The utilitarian approach is one that focuses on the net good created by a choice and uses that good to justify it as ethical (Sheng, 1991). There are two sides of this debate, the “pro-mandate” and the “pro-choice” and both will be discussed. I will argue using the pro-mandate utilitarian approach that all children, without medical exemption, should

The government has a duty to protect the citizen of a population. Government cannot sit idly and watch people suffer and not do anything because a few citizens are against vaccination. Government has to protect mankind. This might seem paternalistic by the government but it is for the good of a society. For example, when seats belts were mandated to protect every individual in a society (McLeod, 2014). The long-term effect of polio is reported that 1 in 200 cases result in irreversible paralysis (McLeod, 2014). While 1 or 2 in 200 cases of whooping cough result in infants’ death (McLeod, 2014). With these numbers the government has the right to express their paternalistic view. The government also has to find a balance between parent’s autonomy and the right to protect the population. When parents and government realize that they have the same goals to protect children then a dialogue can open up on how to get more parents to vaccinate there children. People cannot disregard the goals of another if they are to act morally (Loewey & Loewey, 2000, p.35).

This includes virtually any governmental action needed to control the threat to the population. Therefore, in order to fulfill that responsibility to ensure the public's health state public health authorities could (as they have in the past) temporarily constrain certain civil liberties. They can require private sector participation in public health objectives, shut down potentially harmful industries, destroy contaminated property, deport or prevent the entry of individuals who may infect others, ration supplies, and control the flow of information (Hodge, 2002).

Imagine two children; one who has been completely vaccinated, and the other has never been vaccinated. Both children fall ill from the same virus, but the child who had been vaccinated fully recovers, while the child who was not passes away due to complications. That child’s life could have been saved if the child received the proper vaccinations. Ever since the invention of the Smallpox vaccine more than two centuries ago, there has been an abundance of controversy over the morality, ethics, effectiveness, and safety of vaccinations and immunizations. It has recently been argued whether laws should be introduced that render some or all vaccines mandatory for all children. Parents, health care specialists, nurses, teachers, and children