Should Parents have the Choice to Vaccinate their Children?

Anna Ridgway, Sophie Lee, Amanda Bemis, Quinn Boyle, Hayley Rohrbach

© All Rights Reserved

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● “Childhood vaccines are one of the great triumphs of modern medicine. Indeed, parents whose children are vaccinated no longer have to worry about their child's death or disability from whooping cough, polio, diphtheria, hepatitis, or a host of other infections.” - Ezekiel Emanuel, a scientist and bioethicist. (“Vaccines Quotes”)

● What is a Vaccine? ● Why is vaccinating children a problem?

Vaccines

("Vaccines and Preventable Diseases")

Science, Technology, Medicine

(Margulies)

(hartford)

● In 1998, people started to fear that vaccines caused autism.

● The controversy started when Lancet published an article by Andrew Wakefield MD, claiming vaccines cause autism. (Wakefield)

● Thimerosal, a preservative used in vaccines.

There is no link between vaccines and autism ("Vaccines and Autism: Separating")

Science, Technology, and Medicine Autism

(livefreelivenatural)

PRO● Adverse reactions to vaccines are

extremely rare.● The ingredients in vaccines are safe

in the amounts used.● Vaccines protect future generations.● Vaccine-preventable diseases have

not disappeared so vaccination is still necessary.

● Vaccines can save children's lives.

Science, Technology, and Medicine

CON● Vaccines can cause serious and

sometimes fatal side effects.● Vaccines contain harmful

ingredients.● Vaccines can contain ingredients

some people consider immoral or otherwise objectionable.

● Diseases that vaccines target have essentially disappeared.

● Most diseases that vaccines target are relatively harmless in many cases, thus making vaccines unnecessary.

(Bahar)

(CDC)

("Possible Side-Effects from Vaccines,")

("Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Foetuses,")

Are there too many risks to get a vaccination?

● 1796 - Edward Jenner created the first smallpox vaccine● 1800 - Benjamin Waterhouse brings vaccines into the states● 1855 - Massachusetts passed the first US law mandating vaccinations for schoolchildren.

o New York - 1862o Connecticut - 1872o Indiana - 1881o Arkansas - 1882

● 1885 - Rabies vaccine created● 1925 - Vaccine success for Whooping Cough● 1953 - Chicken Pox is isolated in a petri dish● 1955 - Polio vaccine announced successful● 1966 - Experimental mumps vaccine● 1971 - The U.S gov’t licensed Merck’s combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR)● 1974 - Fewer than 5% of children worldwide were immunized by age 1 against diphtheria, polio,

tuberculosis, pertussis, measles, and tetanus.

Timeline and Law

● 1979 - The rubella vaccines licensed in 1969 were replaced in the United States by American physician Stanley A. Plotkin’s newly licensed RA27/3 vaccine, which had been used in Europe for years.

● 1981 - The FDA licensed Hilleman’s human-blood-derived hepatitis B vaccine, Heptavax-B. It was the first subunit viral vaccine developed in the United States.

● 1994 - On August 20, 1994, the Pan American Health Organization had reported that three years had passed since the last case of wild polio in the Americas.

● 2000 -Continuous transmission of measles was halted in the United States. ● 2002 - Fourteen years after the launch of the global eradication program, the World Health

Organization declared polio was exposed in Europe.

● 2008 - the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received reports of 134 cases of measles in

the United States, the most cases in a year since 1996. Of these cases, more than 90% had not been

vaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.

● 2014 - Ebola virus disease emerged at unprecedented epidemic levels in 2014. Whereas previous

outbreaks had occurred in remote areas and were contained fairly quickly

Timeline and Law

● Each state has its own requirement regarding vaccinating children entering public school.

● DTaP, IPV, and MMR are required vaccinations in all 50 states in order to enter kindergarten.

● 48 states (excluding Mississippi and West Virginia) allow religious exemptions for not receiving any vaccines.

● 19 allow for philosophical reasons. ● 1989-2014, 3,000+ compensation awards have been made by the National Vaccine

Injury Compensation Program and 9,000+ cases have been dismissed.● In some states, you have the option to be exempted from vaccination or revaccination if

you can show proof of existing immunity for certain diseases.● If a person has recovered from the natural disease or has been vaccinated, a blood titer

test may indicate there are enough naturally acquired or vaccine acquired antibodies to “prove” immunity to a particular disease.

Timeline and Law

Do you think there should be more laws regarding vaccinations?

“ EVERY day seems to bring a new story of a politician saying something stupid or evasive about vaccines. Rand Paul frets that they might cause mental disorders. Chris Christie said that his own children had taken their shots but that "parents need to have some measure of choice". Barack Obama, who once waffled on this subject, has declared his strong support for vaccinating children against measles, as has Hillary Clinton.”

("What Experts Say, and What")

Sociol, Global, and Political

Perspectives

Democrats● Originally liberals were anti-

vaccination, linking it to autism● Today many liberals support

vaccinations and the mandate of them by the state such as Hillary Clinton and Obama

● 30 points more likely than Republicans to have at least a fair amount of trust in vaccination policies

Republicans ● Originally conservatives were pro-

vaccination ● Today, many conservatives assert

that vaccinations should be a choice

● Religion is used to legitimize their argument

Democrats and Republicans are about equally likely -- at 61 and 62 percent, respectively -- to say the science itself on vaccines is indisputable. More than 70 percent in both parties consider vaccination a

public health issue (Edwards-Levy).

(Drum)

-Ron Paul stated, "intimately personal medical decisions should not be made by government… Freedom over one’s physical person is the most basic freedom of all, and people in a free society should be sovereign over their own bodies.”

-Against our personal freedom that is given to us in the Constitution-The First amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”-Some religions don’t believe in vaccinations -Violating their freedom of religion in their eyes

(Ron Paul)(Cornell)

Against the Constitution

(Georgetown University)

Ethical Issues ● Religious/philosophical beliefs the conflict with vaccinations

○ STD vaccinations contradict against abstinence based-messages ● Infringe upon individual freedom and independence ● Vaccine development and testing ● Although federal guidelines do not require consent before vaccination● Debate over consent

○ some believe its ethical so that parents are better informed about vaccines

○ opponents fear that consents may add unnecessary fear or concern to the vaccination process

● Increasing the number of vaccine producers would greatly influence health positively○ when vaccines are in short supply decisions must be made

about who should be protected● Developing countries face threats from disabling and deadly

infections, and vaccine development lags behind community health needs

● Public health and medical officials must make difficult decisions about which health needs to address, and how to incorporate vaccination into often-scarce services (“Ethical Issues and Vaccines”)

Ethical Issues

- All states require certain vaccinations for children going to public schools- All 50 accept medical exemption, 48 religious exemption, and 20

physiological exemption- Those who are for vaccinations say, “Vaccination is safe and one of the

greatest health developments of the 20th century.” - Those against respond saying, - “Children’s immune systems

can deal with most infections naturallyand that injecting questionableingredients into a child may causeside effects…”

(CDC)(Malone)

Opinions on Vaccinations for Public Schools

(Texas Children’s Hospital)

● Measles outbreak due to lack of kids getting vaccinated

● Started in Disney Land California ● 121 cases in 17 states ● Because of the current trend of not getting

vaccinated, diseases and illnesses that we have not seen in a long time like the Measles are coming back (Duncan)

Measles Outbreak

(CDC, “Measles Cases and Outbreaks”)

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What Do You Think?Should Parents have the Choice to Vaccinate their Children?