One of the greatest strides that have been made in medical field was discovery of vaccines. Vaccines are important since they improve body immunity to resist diseases. Vaccines have increased life expectancy and people no longer die from disease as it used to be. However, there are different ethical issues surrounding vaccines. Before the child reaches the age of 6 years, they will have received 36 shots which contain a total of 126 vaccines (kidshealth.org). However, the more vaccines the child receives, the higher the likelihood of becoming autistics. Many parents are wary of this fact and are keeping their children only to important vaccines.
On casuistry analysis, it is important to note that vaccines are important to later life of children. This means that they are not just given for purpose of economic exploitation but they are important to the life of the child too (PBS). This means that parents should not just refuse their children to receive vaccines for fear of autism because they are important in their life. The best approach to the problem would therefore to reduce the number of vaccines to only important ones to reduce risk of autism in children.
In consideration of rules and rights, vaccination is an individual right and rule imposed by the government. Vaccination of children is considered as a right of the child. Every child has the right to live a healthy life, which means it would be denying them their rights by failing to vaccinate them at that age. Denying the child the right to be vaccinated can be considered a crime since the government has put it as a rule that all children should be vaccinated.
Under normative ethics, it can be considered wrong for people to hold the belief that if their children are vaccinated, they will develop autism. Always people have fear of the safety of their children and the first reason why people seek vaccines is to ensure a healthy future for their children. Therefore, parents should not deny vaccination for their children on ground of presumed autistic effect and deny their children a healthy future.
In metaethics aspects, vaccinating children is good and should be upheld. Vaccination protects the child from contracting disease which ensures that they lead a healthy life in future. Despite the risk of increased risk of autism, vaccinations are good for the child. On the other hand, it is wrong for pharmaceutical companies to keep on insisting use of vaccines which are not beneficial to the children for economic purposes only. They should promote use of vaccines which are only beneficial to the child.
Get Free custom essays.
The author is associated with Essays. The author will assist you with Students Essay.
Related Darfur War Articles