Forced Vaccination In Public Schools

Since our founding, our country has struggled to find a compromise between security and liberty. A balance between the two is exceedingly difficult because we are a fickle species and we change our minds on which we want more. A current controversy that has spiked national security interest is the topic of vaccinations. The United States is on the edge of a public health crisis. For many years, all 50 states have required that parents vaccinate their children against various diseases, including polio and measles, before enrolling them in public schools, and exempted parents who claimed to have religious or philosophical reasons (Ciolli). As we continue to grow as a society we become more knowledgeable and opinionated on many topics including

According to the first amendment everyone has the freedom of speech, but does that include putting other children at risk for not choosing to no inoculate others? Parents have the right to exercise their religion and not vaccinate their children, but that also puts children who are to young to receive their vaccinations at risk. Some parents have the preconceived notion that the new “cocktails” of vaccinations are to blame for the contraction of autism in their children which is why they refuse to inoculate their children. Having said that, one of our founding principles is “individualism”, we have to respect people’s decisions even if it is outside the cultural norm. Although, medical evidence is inconclusive at this point in time, however the research is still ongoing. On the other hand, according to Daniel Salmon, “Compulsory vaccination has contributed to the enormous success of US immunization programs”, so if this is can be taken as fact, then how can vaccinations be causing autism and other disorders (Salmon)? There are many other social variables that could be contributing to the rise in children being diagnosed with autism. Age in pregnancy has been on the rise for many years, and with a rise in age also increases the chance in giving birth to a child with autism. Another variable could be all of the processed foods we eat nowadays. Because of that, one of our founding principles is “respecting minority interests” and that usually involves the majority to bear part of the costs of the minority’s behavior. The truth is that the majority of children will indeed survive childhood and their vaccinations without any problems whatsoever, but since another one of our founding principles