It has long been questioned whether preventative medicine should be required. Some limitations to preventive medicine include lack of funds and lack of individual compliance. In reference to the lack of funds, many countries lack the finances to provide adequate prevention for any number of diseases and often have to decide between providing prevention and treating diseases. Often, these countries decide to provide the best care for the most people. The lack of compliance issue is usually more of a problem in developed countries where parents don’t want to subject their young children to things such as vaccinations that can cause severe health issues. This is immoral because these parents are presenting their children to a disease that is more likely to cause harm to their children than the possible side effects of the vaccine. I believe that everyone should be vaccinated for diseases that have been eradicated from the US or that are close to being eradicated.
A recent example for why routine vaccinations should be required can be seen in the recent measles outbreak in New York. Within the last month or two, there has been a measles outbreak in New York City. There have been at least 19 confirmed cases of measles. In 2000, measles was considered to be eliminated from the US. Between 2000 and 2013, an estimated 63 cases were found each year, mostly from those traveling abroad. Since 2013, the number of cases have tripled due to the number of people being vaccinated having dropped to only about 90 percent.
There are severe complications accompanied with measles, so most individuals are vaccinated. However there are some who refuse to vaccinate their children due to the rare risks associated with the vaccine. The public health question now is should everyone be required to be vaccinated for measles in order to protect the health of the population? I believe that, for the good of the population, everyone should be vaccinated and up to date on all their vaccinations to protect those around them. By requiring this, almost every individual will be vaccinated and will provide herd immunity to the select few who are not. I believe that there is a huge difference between those who do not want to be vaccinated and those who cannot be vaccinated due to other health related issues.
For those who have not been vaccinated, the reason usually stems from the desire to not be subjected to the potential risks associated with the vaccine. These people are called “free riders”. In my opinion, the decision to not vaccinate is immoral as these individuals put the rest of the public in harms way. Some may argue that vaccinations cost too much for certain classes of people in the US. However, the price of vaccination versus the cost of treatment shows that by not vaccinating, people are actually going to end up spending a great deal more for treating the disease. As Brody and Engelhard stated in their essay, ‘preventative medicine and public health measures have traditionally been a part of medicine.’ This statement is very real and true. We, as an individual and as a nation, have a responsibility to protect those around us from disease due to the lack of vaccination.
http://www.cdc.gov/measles/outbreaks.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/explainer/2014/03/measles_outbreak_in_new_york_should_people_get_revaccinated.html
Brody and Engelhard. “Preventative Medicine,” Bioethics: Readings and Cases
I agree with what you have said in the first few paragraphs. However, I don’t believe that those free riders who reject vaccination are considered immoral, even though it is true that they may put others in harm. Those people may refrain from vaccination because of religion or fear of side effects. Some people are even allergic to vaccines. Allergic reactions to vaccines are rare and unpredictable, but it may cause people to use it as a reason not to be vaccinated. So do you consider those people who try to protect themselves as immoral? Personally I believe that in order to have most people vaccinated is to educate them about vaccines, since there are still a lot of people today believe in the vaccine myths.
When reading your post, I found myself nodding along for many of the facts you raised. However, I disagree with the idea some medical procedures, like vaccinations, being required for all. While I understand that within ethics it is important to look for the “greater good”, I think there is a price that sets the limit. With the loss of autonomy, the ability to justify the idea as ethics is lost. There are a variety of reasons as to why one may not want to receive a vaccine, including but not limited to religious reasons, ethical reasons, or even for fear of the unlikely, but possible, allergic reaction. I, rather, agree with Sarah in the idea that the best counterplan would be to increase the amount of education and knowledge available to all strata of mankind. Through this, the number of vaccinations would increase and disease would be less likely to spread.
The argument that lack of compliance in relation to vaccination is immoral is valid however I think there is a much larger issue at hand. When speaking of the example used above, the lack of compliance is at times attributed to unclear information. Many times parents do not understand what a vaccine does, are not provided clear examples of the positive effects a vaccine can have. Imagine you are a parent and a foreign organization comes in demanding that you vaccinate your child. This means allowing a stranger to place a needle and put something into your child. If you were not able to understand what they are doing, it would be rational to refuse to vaccinate your child.
I don’t believe that this understanding applies to the United States, but on a larger scale it is important to remember the many factors that play into the decision to vaccinate and public health as a whole.
Like Niyeti, I see the problem of free-riders as legitimate, but second to the problem of lack of education. I believe this is apparent in the foundation of this post’s point on vaccinations being harmful- if people were shown the statistics by their doctor, they could make more convincing arguments as to the saving the health of the patient as an individual, their family, and the entire community. However, this is not just a problem in countries besides the United States, it is happening here too! Just last week a celebrity made public their opposition to vaccines so their child is not exposed to the chance of getting autism. This information travels faster and carries more weight if from a celebrity, to the average american. Thus, education before such messages are released needs to be a priority, along with more information from doctors at each visit with the primary doctor.
I completely agree with you about how the lack of vaccinations leads to higher medical costs as well as the immorality in not getting a vaccination and “free loading.” I think the problem with “free riders” is their lack of knowledge or only hearing one side of a bad story and worrying irrationally. “Free riders” figure I don’t want to cause my child harm by taking the vaccine and they will be safe because everyone else has the vaccine and the disease is not prevalent in the US. However, if that child or a child that the non-vaccinate child is in contact with picks up the disease when abroad, the non-vaccinate child is in more danger that was unavoidable. This is what causes the exorbitant medical fees and if our society becomes filled with free-riders all of the hard work done by the past medical professionals to eradicate certain disease will become undone.
I also agree with you and think that everyone should be vaccinated. I think that people’s choices can be overridden if the other choice is in the public’s best interest. Using this example, if someone doesn’t want to be vaccinated, he should be because it is benefiting the rest of society and preventing an outbreak. However, you touched over the fact that there are those who can’t afford vaccinations. Though they will be spending much more money if they were get sick from these diseases, I think that paying for vaccinations is a big decision that unfortunate families have to make. They may want to take that risk because they think that they have a low chance of getting the disease, so they won’t pay for the vaccination. Preventative medicine should be required, but it needs to become more affordable first. If it became more affordable, people would be more inclined to get vaccinations.