Question

The measles virus is very contagious. 13 people per 100,000 infected with the virus die. However, once a person has been successfully vaccinated, they cannot be seriously harmed by the virus. Unfortunately, vaccination involves an injection of a weakened form of the virus, which means there is a 0.01% chance that a person can die due to the vaccination process itself.

From the perspective of total welfare, should measles vaccinations be made compulsory. Why or why not?

Answer 1

Measles vaccine is highly effective and the incidence of measles fell markedly with the availability of the vaccine .But some parents did not want to inoculate their children fearing about the side effects . In America , states have the authority that requires children to get vaccinated but these laws are not enforced where there are religious or philosophical objections.  But the benefits of measles vaccination outweigh the very small risk of side effects.In UK there is no legislation to increase vaccination rate . Parents believe that vaccines are harmful,not natural and breaks civil liberties.Ethicists believe that compulsory vaccination is needed because people who do not vaccinate their children are putting other people's health at risk.Many others of of the view that rather than making vaccination compulsory, it is necessary to stress on other methods to increase vaccination  like improving access to services which calls for making immunization child and parent friendly , taking out time to convince parents,and practitioners are properly trained.Only after this vaccination can be made compulsory so that issues arising can be tackled.If school admission is denied without vaccination parents may resort to home schooling .and if vaccination was related to welfare benefits ,parents would decide to be less well off.So instead of making it compulsory which alienate parents, it is better to improve services is what many argue.Deciding weighing  the pros and cons , it is found that pros outweigh cons and so vaccination should be compulsory.