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The Ethics of Vaccination
This open access book discusses individual, collective, and institutional responsibilities with regard to vaccination from the perspective of philosophy and public health ethics. It addresses the issue of what it means for a collective to be morally responsible for the realisation of herd immunity and what the implications of collective responsibility are for individual and institutional responsibilities. The first chapter introduces some key concepts in the vaccination debate, such as ‘herd immunity’, ‘public goods’, and ‘vaccine refusal’; and explains why failure to vaccinate raises certain ethical issues. The second chapter analyses, from a philosophical perspective, the relationship between individual, collective, and institutional responsibilities with regard to the realisation of herd immunity. The third chapter is about the principle of least restrictive alternative in public health ethics and its implications for vaccination policies. Finally, the fourth chapter presents an ethical argument for unqualified compulsory vaccination, i.e. for compulsory vaccination that does not allow for any conscientious objection. The book will appeal to philosophers interested in public health ethics and the general public interested in the philosophical underpinning of different arguments about our moral obligations with regard to vaccination.
- GenresPhilosophy
192 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 28, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 21, 2019
Giubilini argues in The Ethics of Vaccination that an ethical approach to vaccination choices and policy supports the following claims (summed up in pp. 120-121):
1. There is a collective responsibility, or collective moral obligation, to realize herd immunity.
2. There is an individual moral obligation to contribute to the realization of herd immunity by being vaccinated or by vaccinating one's children.
3. The state has an institutional responsibility to implement vaccination policies that can guarantee at least the realization of herd immunity.
4. If the aim of vaccination policies were merely the realization of herd immunity, then a principle of least restrictive alternative would imply that the state has an institutional responsibility to implement the least restrictive policy that would be effective in achieving this goal.
5. However, a principle of fairness requires that everybody—not just the smallest number of people that can realize herd immunity—makes their fair contribution to herd immunity by getting vaccinated.
6. The existence of an individual obligation to be vaccinated or to vaccinate one's children implies that the state is morally justified in requiring each individual to be vaccinated or to vaccinate their children, in the absence of legitimate medical reasons for exemptions; in other words, compulsory vaccination without non-medical exemptions is ethically justified.
7. A principle of fairness in the distribution of the burdens entailed by an important public good like herd immunity implies that the state ought to require each individual to be vaccinated or to vaccinate their children, in the absence of legitimate medical reasons for exemptions; in other words, enforcing compulsory vaccination without non-medical exemptions is an ethical obligation of states.
8. Compulsory vaccination meets the requirements posed by the ethical principles that should inform policymaking, namely, maximization of expected utility, fairness, and least restrictive alternative, if properly understood.
1. There is a collective responsibility, or collective moral obligation, to realize herd immunity.
2. There is an individual moral obligation to contribute to the realization of herd immunity by being vaccinated or by vaccinating one's children.
3. The state has an institutional responsibility to implement vaccination policies that can guarantee at least the realization of herd immunity.
4. If the aim of vaccination policies were merely the realization of herd immunity, then a principle of least restrictive alternative would imply that the state has an institutional responsibility to implement the least restrictive policy that would be effective in achieving this goal.
5. However, a principle of fairness requires that everybody—not just the smallest number of people that can realize herd immunity—makes their fair contribution to herd immunity by getting vaccinated.
6. The existence of an individual obligation to be vaccinated or to vaccinate one's children implies that the state is morally justified in requiring each individual to be vaccinated or to vaccinate their children, in the absence of legitimate medical reasons for exemptions; in other words, compulsory vaccination without non-medical exemptions is ethically justified.
7. A principle of fairness in the distribution of the burdens entailed by an important public good like herd immunity implies that the state ought to require each individual to be vaccinated or to vaccinate their children, in the absence of legitimate medical reasons for exemptions; in other words, enforcing compulsory vaccination without non-medical exemptions is an ethical obligation of states.
8. Compulsory vaccination meets the requirements posed by the ethical principles that should inform policymaking, namely, maximization of expected utility, fairness, and least restrictive alternative, if properly understood.
April 11, 2021
Very interesting topic especially nowadays. I don't know what could be the best idea to solve this issue but I think we will see it soon. Policies, regulations, laws are changing (and change at this moment) and we need to find the right and least harmful way(s) to manage it.
I wish more and more people would read this short book because it is a great topic to discuss and understand other's opinion about it.
[EN-Kindle]
I wish more and more people would read this short book because it is a great topic to discuss and understand other's opinion about it.
[EN-Kindle]
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April 21, 2026Every day I wake up and it is another day that is haunted by John Stuart Mill, when will this nightmare end
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews