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Should Parents be Forced to Have their Children Immunized? An argument against this

Issue

Immunization of children has been an object of concern for various years. Some parents

have shown opposition, hesitation and uncertainty on the existing vaccines for children.

Therefore, parents' reaction towards children immunization programs is becoming a major

difficulty to research institutions whose major focus is to stop diseases that can be prevented

through vaccines in the society. Notably, these parents have reserved explanations for not

vaccinating their children, which include spiritual beliefs, distrust in available vaccines,

socioeconomic issues and their philosophical ideologies. Achievement of public health aim of

mass vaccination of children against preventable diseases, may require establishment of

regulations that would demand parents to immunize their children, adoption of this regulations

has been thought to be the solution for ensuring parents have their children immunized. The

focus of this paper is to examine the reasons why parents should not be forced to have their

children immunized.

The need for children vaccination can be analyzed through the interest of the subjects

involved in the immunization. These parties include parents and public health officials who have

various interests in relation to the immunization of children (Hendrix et al., 274). However, we

should note that parents have a primary responsibility to their families. For this reason, it is
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important to note that parents are perceived to have best interest about their children well-being.

They should therefore be given the mandate of making the most ideal choices for their children,

which based on their arguments, would be most advantageous to their children and families. In

line with this thoughts, it should be the mandate of the parents to make the decision to have their

children vaccinated or to not have them vaccinated. Their choice should be given respect by the

public health officials who may wish to convince parents otherwise. Public health officials must

not impose approaches that seek to force parents to have their children vaccinated.

Religious practices and beliefs greatly contribute to the identity of a person adopts or a

particular community. It is also essential to note that spiritual beliefs play a key role in the peace

and unity shown in a particular society or country. Additionally, the identity of an individual acts

as the basis for personal motivation which moves them to achieve certain goals in life (Mckee et

al., 105). Some parents choose to have their children vaccinated or not on the basis of their

spiritual beliefs. The establishment of approaches to have their children vaccinated can be

against spiritual beliefs parents and can also be shown as a form of distrust of parent’s religious

beliefs. It can also act as an attack on beliefs of these parents who greatly value their religious

practices. It can also have considerable effect on their identity which can lead to both

psychological and emotional effects on them. Emotional and psychological effects on the parents

can result to mental health issues as a result of depression, stress and also anxiety. Additionally,

it is a common practice for parents to pass their spiritual beliefs to their children.Similary, these

beliefs would eventually form the identity of the children. It is, therefore, crucial for public

health sector to show respect to the spiritual practices and beliefs of parents in order to protect

identity of their parents and their families and also to protect religious beliefs available in the
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society which greatly contribute to the harmony in most societies. To effectively achieve this,

any measures of forcing parents to take their children for immunization should be eradicated.

Parents may choose base their decision of immunization of their children on personal

beliefs. Personal beliefs that parents show against immunizing their children may be as result of

observations on vaccinated people in their society. Additionally, these beliefs could also have

been a result of personal research on certain vaccines (Ventola 20). Based on these observations

and researches, they may have noticed disadvantages of particular vaccines. It is therefore

important to value their judgment on the choice of not having their children vaccinated. This is

because they may believe that the vaccine could cause certain effects on their children or

endanger their lives. Children are the responsibility of parent. It therefore essential to note that, if

they are forced to have their children immunized, the occurrence of these effects would directly

affect them to a greater extend which may cause emotional distress to them. It may also lead to

economic effects which would include extra finances being required for treatment of any post

vaccination effects. Therefore, it is important for the government and public health officials not

to force parents to have their children immunized.

Most families are built based on shared beliefs and also practices. These beliefs and

practices act as the basis of keeping the family together. Through families sticking together,

harmony is achieved in the family and a guarantee for the family to last is achieved. Parents who

form a certain families may have the belief against immunizing their children; it therefore forms

part of the expectations of the type of family they would like to have (Hendrix et al., 275).

However, forcing these parents to have their children vaccinated can be a reason for conflict

within the family which can play a key role in splitting the family or separation of the child who

may be vaccinated. Therefore, it is important for the public health sector to respect the choice for
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parents not to vaccinate their children to protect these families from splitting and guard the sense

of worth of children in their families.

For certain reasons, the government may adopt policies that force children to be

vaccinated in order to protect them against a prevailing disease. However, some parents may

have reservations on these vaccines with the thought that vaccinating their children may lead to

certain health risk to their children (Ventola 27). Some of these parents may decide for their

children to have certain vaccines and avoid others. This kind of concern for their children is

acceptable and should be respected by the public health sector, any effort to force them should

therefore be discouraged, which manifests genuine consideration of parents concern.

According to the bill of human rights, each individual has the right to choose. This right

can involve the choice that parents make regarding if they should or should not immunize their

children. For the parents who decide not to vaccinate their children, the public sector should

show acknowledgement of their decision by not forcing them to vaccinate their children

(Hendrix et al., 276). The reason or doing this would be forced vaccination would derive parents

their right to choose. On the other hand, parents have the right to give consent to their children to

be immunized. Forcing these parents to take their children through immunization procedures

goes against their autonomy for giving primary consent on their children. It is therefore crucial

for public health policies to not force parents to have their children vaccinated.

Sicknesses that require vaccination have been observed to emerge as time goes by. As a

result, it can be the idea of public health to have all children vaccinated. On the other hand, some

parents may feel that complying with the public health sector requirements would be giving up

their children for experiments because the vaccines may be new and the operations of the

vaccine may not be understood (Mckee et al., 106). Therefore, it should be the duty of the public
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health to consider the fears of these parents and seize from any activity that may force them to

have their children vaccinated.

Some institutions like schools may be used by public sector to force parents to have their

children immunized. For instance it can be a requirement to have children vaccinated against

particular diseases before school admission. These procedures may to force parents to have their

children immunized (Ventola 21). Before establishing these procedures, it is essential to consider

parents who may be going through socioeconomic challenges that may act as a limitation of

having their children vaccinated. Some of these difficulties may be the inability to cater for

transportation costs required in effort of accessing health care facilities. In this case, it is crucial

not to force these parents to have their children vaccinated and exempt them from policies in

institutions.

Parents have various reasons as to why they may not want to immunize their children.

Some of these reasons may be personal beliefs, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs, and

concerns about the safety of certain vaccines. Despite the reasons a parent may have for not

having their children vaccinated, it is important to note that they always have the best interest on

their children. Their refusal to vaccinate their children could also be attributed to past

observations on effects of vaccination on other people. Therefore, their reasons need to be

respected and public health sector should deviate from any activity that may force them to have

their children vaccinated. Some of the activities that may force parents to immunize their

children against their will include being a requirement for vaccination against particular diseases

before school admission. Other activities that may be adoption of policies that require parents to

have their children immunized. All these strategies should be discouraged to provide parents

with the freedom of choice on the wellbeing of their children.

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Work Cited

Hendrix, Kristin S., et al. "Ethics and childhood vaccination policy in the United

States." American journal of public health 106.2 (2016): 273-278.

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302952

McKee, Chephra, and Kristin Bohannon. "Exploring the reasons behind parental refusal of

vaccines." The journal of pediatric pharmacology and therapeutics 21.2 (2016): 104-109.

https://meridian.allenpress.com/jppt/article-abstract/21/2/104/81134

Ventola, C. Lee. "Immunization in the United States: recommendations, barriers, and measures

to improve compliance: part 2: adult vaccinations." Pharmacy and Therapeutics 41.8

(2016): 492.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4959618/