The Ethics Of Vaccination

Vaccination was first introduced globally for small pox and later on extended to other communicable diseases which are now known as vaccine preventable disease. Vaccination is beneficial both for individuals and community. This bring us to the ethical dilemma - Vaccination of a healthy child with the intention of protecting both the individual child and the community at the same time exposing the child to the theoretical risk of exposure to disease products whether live, attenuated or killed. There was a time when people never questioned the government or their physicians. Now because of more public awareness and accessibility to medical information, they are questioning the safety aspects of vaccines.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, a vaccine is defined as “a product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting that person from disease” (“Immunization”, 2017). Children begin the vaccination process at birth and continue to receive vaccines throughout he or she’s adolescent years. The vaccinations are peremptory in the protection from diseases, such as, Hepatitis A, Meningitis, and Influenza. Even though vaccines have been proven to increase protection from disease in children, parents have the option to opt out of the vaccine schedule. The percentage of people opting out of vaccinating is on the rise due to the

First of all, religion has become a frequently used excuse. Recently, a case arose in New York City when three families obtained vaccination exemptions due to religious reasons (NYC Court 1). Because they chose to not vaccinate their children, their children were not allowed to attend school during times when another student had a vaccine-preventable illness (NYC Court 1). Naturally, this sparked an uproar among the parents, who then sued the city by claiming it was a violation of their First Amendment right to religious freedom and their 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law (NYC Court 1). The dogma of several mainstream religions references vaccines and whether or not they are necessary. For example, “the Catholic Church strongly supports vaccination, even making it a moral and

Many people refuse the vaccination process simply because of their religious views. In the article, Vaccinations and Parental Rights written by Sam Blumefeld, he talks about religions and belief systems that promote different perspectives towards objections to vaccines. An example is the belief that the body is sacred, and should not receive certain chemicals or blood tissue from animals, and should be healed by god or natural means. One of the most prominent views is, the Church of Christ also known as Christian Science. It’s believed that they can heal all things through prayer rather than through medicine. Therefore, many of these worshipers strongly oppose vaccinations. The article, Vaccines: A Religious Contentions states the different

In America, it is the norm for everyone to get vaccinated. U.S. citizens live in a country that claims to be a democracy, but somehow that gets away with forcing us to execute activites and tricking us into believing they are always correct and trustworthy. For example, the United States government is slowly and secretly trying to make it a requirement for everyone to get every vaccination. Here’s how they are doing it: The pharmaceutical companies that develop and produce the recommended vaccinations and medications, donate millions of dollars to the FDA. In 2014 their donations made up 94% of the FDA’s total budget, which ended up equaling 4.7 billion dollars (Mercola). The FDA is the Food and Drug Administration, which is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Once the FDA approves the pharmaceutical companies new medications or vaccinations, their representatives are allowed to go to medical offices and distribute their product. Unfortunately, they often leave out information about side effects, and more importantly, ingredients. Then the misinformed doctors continue the trend to their patients.

When it comes to anti-vaxxers, I think child abuse. Fear-mongers and false prophets have come forward to preach about the evils of vaccination and all the harm it is doing to children. When in reality it is hurting our children by not vaccination them. Anti-vaxxers use a shock and awe approach, with no credible evidence, they parade around autistic children and claim that their brain abnormality is caused by the MMR vaccine. All evidence that has come forward to support this has been debunked. According to the World Health Organization, in the article “10 facts on immunization” “Over 1 million infants and young children die every year from pneumococcal disease and rotavirus diarrhea … these deaths can be prevented through vaccination”.

Living in an environment where we are prone to many viruses, it’s very important that one take the proper precautions or considerations to control the risk of getting affected. However, when utilizing the ability of not becoming infected, one may question the fact weather there’s an actual effective form of prevention or not. To clarify the uncertainty, over many years one of the most strategic methods that have been used for the control and preventions of viruses are vaccinations. A vaccination takes advantage of one’s body natural ability to primarily learn how to eliminate almost any disease causing germ or microbe that affects it. Therefore vaccinations are considered one of the most effective ways to prevent severe outcomes initiated by viruses.

Why do some parents not vaccinate their children? Many children aren’t vaccinated because of some religious beliefs. Many religions believe in home remedies verses medication. Although some home

Anti-Vaccination, it is a dangerous movement that recently began and is killing hundreds of innocent children. Certain vaccinations should be mandatory for the health and safety of our children and communities because parents who do not vaccinate their children not only put themselves at risk, but other innocent children.

Therefore, their beliefs discard the purpose of vaccines where chemicals, blood or tissues from animals are used to assist with the healing of your body. For example; the Christian Scientists are and formally against the idea of vaccinations, but they remain to rely on prayers for healing of the body. This way of healing for Christian Science was proven to be dangerous in 1994, when a measles outbreak occurred in the United States because it had a originated from a member of their religion when she attended her boarding school. On another note, the Catholic Church does recognise the importance and valuability of vaccines for one’s health, but it is important that they are to find vaccines that do and contain the cell lines derived from a baby foetus. Secondly, the general social and economical implications have proven the success and effectiveness of vaccines throughout the years. A few examples would be the fact the fact that the herd immunity actually works and provides the minority who cannot receive vaccines a source of immunity and it also very cost effective. But yet, there are still different situations that would have different implications and possibly provide alternative methods that may or may not be, just as effective as vaccinations. For instance; whether or not children, teen or adults so receive the chickenpox vaccination or endure through a pox party instead?

Some DTaP/IPV/Hib combination, Hep A/Hep B combination, HepA, MMR, and chicken pox vaccines are cultivated in cells from two fetuses aborted in the 1960s (listed as MRC-5 and WI-38 on package inserts). The Catholic Church, in a June 9, 2005 report about using vaccines made using cells from aborted fetuses, indicated that "there is a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines" to avoid the "evil" of actively or passively participating in anything that involves voluntary abortion. Some vaccines for DTaP, Hep A, RV, Hib, HPV, IPV, flu, MMR, and chicken pox are made using animal products like chicken eggs, bovine casein, insect cells, Cocker Spaniel cells, pig gelatin, and cells from African Green monkeys, making those vaccines conflict with some vegetarian and vegan philosophies. Others consider it problematic that some vaccines are produced using human albumin, a blood plasma protein.

The classic essay Tragedy of the Commons describes the dilemma society faces when the interests of a group conflicts with the interests of individuals (Hardin, 1968). The example presented is that of a group of cattle ranchers commingling their cattle in a common pasture. At full capacity, each cattle owner still has an incentive to include additional cattle, since the slight decrease in overall yield per animal is offset by the additional animal. Unfortunately, this overgrazing inevitably leads to failure of the commons. The community goal of maximizing food production can only be achieved by placing controls on the interests of the individual cattle ranchers in favor of those of the community (Hardin, 1968). This paper is

As we have seen, one of the best ways to treat diseases, or prevent people from contracting a disease is to have them immunized. However, if the public’s view about vaccines gets marred by allegations which do, or do not have scientific validations, we risk being in a position where people refuse to use vaccines. Non-immunizations based on religious perspectives is a worrying concern, which can be detrimental to society’s efforts to combat diseases. Religious bodies such as Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism command millions of followers. When these religious bodies raise concerns about vaccines, the potential of these concerns to influence millions of followers is huge. What is most worrying is the lack of adequate scientific data to back some

Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR), Inactivated Poliovirus, and Rotavirus are just a few examples of vaccines recommended for children by the Center for Disease Control. These vaccines are recommended for children in order to prevent the contraction and spread of diseases that have been controlled in recent years, eradicated from our country, or that we are hoping to prevent from being introduced. According to an article published by TIME Magazine, 1 in 10 parents choose to “opt out” of vaccinating their children according to the recommended CDC schedule (Park). While parents are responsible for choosing medical treatment and prevention methods for their child, many are forgetting that their choices affect not only their family unit, but the entire community they are surrounded by.

Vaccination can be defined as a process which most commonly involves, “the insertion of a special material, called a vaccine, into a person’s body, usually by means of a sharp needle.” (Chatterjee, 2013). This active form of immunisation prevents approximately 2.5 million deaths every year, and is said to be the most effective weapon ever developed for the prevention of serious infectious diseases (Barnighausen, Bloom, Cafiero-Fonseca & O’Brien, 2014; Chatterjee, 2013). The anti-vaccination movement opposes the use of and enforcement of vaccines in the community, however does so with a lack of scientific reasoning. As such, it is not reasonable to believe in anti-vaccination. There is no denying that vaccination saves lives through