The Ethics Of Vaccines

The first viewpoint this paper will examine is that of those in favor of vaccinating children. Firstly, vaccinations have the ability to protect children from diseases such as Hepatitis B, Measles, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Polio, Influenza, and Tuberculosis, as well as an assortment of others. The driving force behind most pro-vaccine individuals is the protection of their children. When parents choose not to give their children vaccinations, it increases the chance of an outbreak of any of the above mentioned diseases. Without the implementation of vaccines, many of these easily-preventable diseases become possible epidemics."Vaccines are only given to children after a long and careful review by scientists, doctors, and healthcare professionals" (Vaccines). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, works alongside public and private

Kaylee Davidson English 101 Dr. Smith 14 February 2016 Should You Vaccinate Your Child? The Center for Disease Control describes vaccines as the greatest development in public health since clean drinking water. For several decades, vaccines have saved countless lives and helped eradicate some fatal diseases. The push to do away with vaccines will not only endanger our youth, but our society as a whole. Vaccination is needed to maintain a healthy balance within our country. Vaccines provide the immunity that comes from a natural infection without the consequences of a natural infection. Vaccinations save an ever-growing amount of lives every year. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that 732,000 American children were saved from death and 322 million cases of childhood illnesses were prevented between 1994 and 2014 due to vaccination (“Vaccine ProCon”).

“Prevention is better than cure.” This common statement could not relate any better than it does with the controversy surrounding the morality, effectiveness, and safety of childhood immunizations. The major argument is whether or not laws should be established to declare vaccination mandatory for all children. “The US food and Drug administration (FDA) regulates all vaccines to ensure safety and effectiveness,” (ProCon.org, 2012) therefor there should not be any reason to risk the health of any child. Vaccinating our children not only ensures their safety but also that of their future to come.

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? Parents with infants and young children have been tussling with this proverbial question for several decades now. With the advent of the internet and the World Wide Web, parents have been bombarded with a plethora of information about pros and cons of vaccines from all kinds of sources, some creditable, and some are not. To the non-scientific community, these conflicting information can create problems in the decision making process; thus, forcing parents to make the wrong choices and putting their offspring and others at risk. However, this article will attempt to address the importance of vaccinations, how vaccines work, why we should vaccinate, and why parents should not be afraid to vaccinate their offspring.

The Controversy of Vaccines Controversy concerning the risks of vaccinations will always exist. As is the nature of a preventative intervention, it is difficult to rationalize giving a completely healthy child an injection that is known to have varying degrees of sides affects5. Additionally, these injections are to provide immunity to

Prospectus Working Title: Childhood Vaccinations Description: The topic that will be thoroughly discussed is Vaccination of Children and whether or not you should vaccinate your child. I chose this particular topic because it is a well-known controversial topic and I strongly believe that children should receive their vaccinations. Vaccinations are extremely important to not only a potential at-risk-child but also the family, friends, and the community as a whole. Without vaccinations the world would suffer from fatal diseases, illnesses, and disabilities. The mortality rate would without a doubt increase and the survival of infants would become a struggle. Throughout my paper I will thoroughly explain how vaccinations work, review frequently asked questions and concerns, describe the pros and cons, and discuss why every infant should receive their vaccinations.

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.

However, these parents are underestimating how many other parents have the same idea. An increasing problem is that people assume that everyone else vaccinated their children. In reality, a minority large enough to start an epidemic are not vaccinating their children. Park estimates if all children received the recommended vaccinations from the time they were born to adolescence $10 billion in medical bills would be saved, 14 million infections would be avoided, and 33,000 lives would be saved (Park). The issue is, critics believe these numbers do not apply to them. Critics believe their child’s infection could not have been avoided, and, potentially, life could not have been saved if they did vaccinate their child.

Immunizations in Pediatric Care Creating a world free of potential disease and infections in order to protect our youth and for the future eradication of disease sounds like a dream. Nonetheless, goals like this make educating our community about facts and benefits of immunization therapy a pertinent issue. Many times, it

The means of dealing with infectious diseases that endanger individual and public health have evolved over the years. In 1789, however, the most protective technology used to prevent epidemics was introduced by physician Edward Jenner; vaccination. Vaccine efficiency continues to develop and become more advanced, producing immunity to infectious diseases from 90 to 100 percent of the time today. Because of inoculation, millions of people worldwide are immunized from fatal epidemics. However, because of unsubstantiated fears, many parents have been withholding vaccines from their children. Despite this, parents should not have the right to withhold vaccines from their children for philosophical reasons. Vaccines are the best way to prevent disease, vaccine exemptions endanger individual and public health, and without widespread inoculation, controlled diseases will rebound.

Assa 1 Christina Assa ENC1101, 1954644 Professor Hofman 30 April 2015 Mandatory Vaccinations There is much debate to whether or not children should or shouldn’t be vaccinated. Every day there are many children and even adults who have died from diseases that could have been prevented before they came up. Immunizing our children is important so that they will stay healthy and so will other children around them. Children are at the most risk for developing diseases when they are growing up. They will play amongst other children and can potentially bring home germs and a common cold. Nowadays, many diseases are being eliminated since parents and their children are being vaccinated. If parents decided against vaccinating their children, there could be some serious consequences. Diseases can be spread and there can even be fatalities if the diseases were left untreated. Vaccinations are extremely important because lives would be risked every single day by many parents deciding against vaccinations for their children. They should also be mandatory for every child, even if they do not attend schools. Parents protect their children from many things; diseases should be one of them.

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

Immunizations assure that all children are protected against infectious disease. In order to reduce these infectious diseases, requires the participation and collaboration of key stakeholders in which each has a specific role. The five stakeholders that I have chosen to discuss, include but are not limited to the parents of children, federal and state government, health care providers, public health professionals, and nongovernmental organization.

Vaccinations have been proven safe for consumer use time and time again, yet people are still wary or hesitant to have their children receive vaccinations. Often times, people who argue against vaccinations are undereducated or miseducated about the real advantages and dangers of vaccinations, and many times these concerns are due to widely spread misconceptions. However, these have been proven wrong by a plethora of reputable pharmaceutical companies. Proven by many , vaccinations prevent epidemics, save money for the nation, and protect the future.

“Standard immunization currently averts an estimated two to three million deaths every year in all age groups” (“General Information”). Children along with adults should be vaccinated because these Inoculations prevent diseases, even deaths, from going around, along with keeping the environment a safer place. As people know, kids get vaccinated