Ethical Issues in Vaccine Refusal

Ethical Issues in Health Promotion
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Ethical Issues in Health Promotion
Health promotion activities are instrumental in improving the overall health and well-being of communities. One of the core aspects of health promotion is disease prevention. Vaccination against diseases is one of the health promotion activities for disease prevention. According to Doherty et al. (2019), vaccination has improved global life expectancy by minimizing deaths from infectious diseases as well as from complications arising from pre-existing chronic illnesses. The purpose of this paper is to summarize an ethical issue in health promotion and discuss the role of healthcare professionals in resolving the issue. Specifically, this paper will summarize the ethical issue presented by Grzybowski et al. (2017) in their paper on vaccine refusal.
Summary of the Issue
Grzybowski et al. (2017) indicate that vaccinations have been instrumental in reducing death rates and promoting public health. Yet, there has been a rise in anti-vaccine movements as people refuse voluntary vaccination for many reasons, including religious and naturalistic beliefs, among others. As a result, in the recent past, there have been many legislative frameworks put in place by governments to impose vaccination. This has been attributed to increasing risks of infectious/communicable diseases which threaten public health. Some countries only recommend that citizens be vaccinated against various diseases, while others have made vaccination against certain illnesses a legal requirement.
The ethical issue discussed by Grzybowski et al. (2017) is coercion and violation of patient autonomy. By making vaccination a legal requirement, authorities are violating individual autonomy and freedom to choose what happens to one's body. However, by completely ignoring the importance of vaccination in enhancing herd immunity, countries that do not place vaccination obligations on citizens threaten public health. The question that this ethical issue raises is how can a balance between individual autonomy and public health protection be created and maintained?
Grzybowski et al. (2017) recommend issuing a financial penalty against individuals who refuse to get vaccinated and end up being infected. The authors indicate that this solution wou...