The Pros And Cons Of Mandatory Vaccinations

The parental instinct of protecting one's children plays a role with the increasing trend of vaccine refusal and vaccine delay. Vaccine hesitancy is significant concern as some parents are skeptical about the safety of vaccines, which can consequently lead to vaccine refusal driven by fear of harm. As with the majority of health innovations, there are risks and benefits associated. Similarly, the Public Health Agency of Canada (2013) states that vaccines are not 100% safe, however they are much more safe as compared to the life threatening diseases such as diphtheria. With respect to Wakefield's autism study (1998), a limitation to his study was that the sample size used was very small with only 12 children (as cited in Smith, 2013). The

In the same manner, it is unethical to allow others to suffer from serious illnesses that are life threatening because parents and/or guardians refuse to vaccinate children with modern medicine where these prophylactic regimens are available, encouraged to receive, and effective to its intended purpose of disease prevention. Mandatory vaccinations takes on a paternalistic and utilitarian approach, as the federal and provincial government of Canada would create a public policy for the best interests of health, and creating the best outcome. In the case of mandatory childhood vaccinations, ethical dilemmas arise when there is infringement on autonomy. However Feinberg (1984) stated that it is not feasible for the government to ask all individuals who are affected by the policy (as cited in Wilson, 2011). Childhood vaccination ties into the concept of beneficence for individual, community, and population health in order to eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases that are still prevalent in society. Salmon and Siegal (2001) suggested in order to balance individual autonomy and public beneficence regarding vaccinations, is to possibly allow for non-medical exemptions such as religious reasons with the agreement of counseling on the consequences of vaccination refusal (as cited in Omer et al., 2009). Mandatory childhood vaccinations promote the strengthening of community actions to eradicate vaccine-preventable diseases by working collaboratively in order to break the vicious cycles. It also relates to the Ottawa Charter principles of building a healthy public policy in order to sustain the decrease of vaccine-preventable diseases and collective health and vaccine-preventable