THREE ETHICAL REASONS TO VACCINATE YOUR CHILDREN

In the United States, there are more and more billboards with messages that warn of the danger of vaccines no matter how much science says so loud and clear: vaccines are extremely safe.

Researchers studying the beliefs of anti-vaccines have found many different reasons, not simply religious or political, why some parents refuse to vaccinate their children.

As a bioethics specialist who investigates the impact of social values in medicine, I consider that these decisions are simply indefensible. Below I list three good reasons.

1. Lack of contribution to the common good

Examples such as roads, drinking water or universal education are public goods that benefit us all. Public health (the health of the general population as a result of laws and social practices) It is also part of this category.

Many ethics experts consider it unfair to take advantage of such assets without doing our part to contribute to the system.

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Years of research that include hundreds of thousands of cases show us that vaccines are safe and effective. One of the reasons why they are so effective (to the point that some diseases have been eradicated) is what scientists call "collective immunity."

What it means is that once a certain percentage of the population is immune to a disease thanks to public health programs, a general protection for the entire population. Even if a part of the population fell ill, the disease could not spread uncontrollably.

Those who reject vaccines are aware that their children will continue to benefit from the protection of collective immunity, but it is unfair. If everyone acted in the same way, collective immunity would disappear.

In fact, it is what has happened in California, where measles has returned due to the decision of many parents not to vaccinate their children.

These parents not only failed to fulfill their duty to contribute to the common good, but they worsened it actively, hurting other people and assuming a cost to the economy of millions of dollars.

2. Impact of health decisions on the most vulnerable

Viruses do not affect everyone in the same way. Many times it is the elderly, children and people with a weakened immune system that they are more at risk of being affected.

In my family, my brother Jason often had to go to the hospital urgently because he used to get infections easily. That's why every time there was a visit at home we had to ask our guests if they had had any infection.

Many times people didn't tell us the truth: some said it was simply an "allergy" and others directly offended the question. My brother ended up getting certain germs and more than once his life was in danger because of the lack of empathy with his state of health.

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Ethics experts have long advocated for the special protection of the most vulnerable and we have to be aware of the impact our health decisions have on the rest, particularly on the most vulnerable people.

3. Health is a common good

Political philosophers like John Dewey have argued that democratic public institutions are forced to rely on evidence and scientific facts. People may have their own personal beliefs, but there are truths that are undeniable, such as the fact that the Earth is round and orbits the sun.

Anti-scientific behaviors are dangerous because they impair our ability to make common decisions as a society, whether in the field of education, infrastructure or health. For example, if many people felt that the scientific consensus on climate change is simply "an opinion", it would affect our ability to react to all the changes that are already taking place. Similarly, treating the science behind vaccines as "an opinion" affects us all negatively.

Taking into account the large amount of scientific evidence that demonstrates the efficacy, safety and importance of vaccines, citizens are obliged to defend vaccination and encourage the rest to do the same.

At the base of each of these studies we find a simple but powerful truth: health is a common good. Ethical obligations related to health are not limited to what we do in our homes. Whoever thinks like this is very wrong at the empirical level and his position is indefensible at the ethical level.

Author: Joel Michael Reynolds. Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Lowell

This article has originally been published in The Conversation. You can read the original article here.

Translated by Silvestre Urbón