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When Are Vaccine Mandates Appropriate?
Carmel Shachar1, Dorit Rubinstein Reiss2
1The executive director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is also a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School.
AMA Journal of Ethics
|January 21, 2020
Summary
Mandatory vaccination policies, including legal enforcement, may be ethically justified for public health emergencies like Ebola. Such measures can be appropriate to maintain social stability and reduce disease severity.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Bioethics
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Vaccine refusal poses a significant public health threat, particularly for pandemic-prone diseases like Ebola.
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo has faced challenges with Ebola outbreaks, highlighting the need for effective control measures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the ethical appropriateness of mandatory vaccination policies.
- To explore legal interventions such as mandates and criminalization for vaccine refusal.
Main Methods:
- Ethical analysis of legal approaches to vaccine mandates.
- Review of public health principles in the context of infectious disease outbreaks.
Main Results:
- Compulsory vaccination can be ethically permissible under specific circumstances.
- Legal interventions may be justified to uphold social stability and governmental trust.
Conclusions:
- Ethical justification for mandatory vaccination hinges on preserving societal well-being and public trust.
- Legal measures for vaccination are appropriate when they mitigate disease severity and ensure public safety.
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