The Anti-Vaccination Movement and the Ethics of Care in Parenthood
Open AccessRecent outbreaks of several vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States have threatened the mortality of thousands of unvaccinated children, and policy is necessary in order to protect their lives. Since 2008, there has been an increase in the number of vaccine-preventable illnesses due to the growth of communities with unvaccinated persons. I will argue that mandatory vaccinations are the most ethical policy alternative to curb the negative externalities associated with the anti-vaccine movement. At the same time, it is crucial to recognize that parents who do not want their children to be vaccinated can be understood as caring in order to better understand the problem and define solutions that take into account the priorities of parents who are making medical decisions on behalf of their children. Approaches drawing on care ethics facilitate an appreciation of the caring exhibited by anti-vaccine parents while nonetheless helping to see why a mandatory vaccination policy is the best way to care for our society as a whole. This paper evaluates different policy options concerning the contemporary anti-vaccination movement in the United States, drawing upon both Eva Feder Kittay's and Sara Ruddick's feminist ethics of care. I claim that an ethic of care approach should guide policies concerning the wellbeing of minors because it enables us to identify and address ethical versus unethical caring behavior on the part of the parents or guardians who are charged with making decisions on their behalf.Ethics of care narrows the scope of the problem to questionable assumptions about vaccinations while also identifying that such suppositions are based on integral care values in parenthood. I argue that central caring values can be maintained by banning religious and personal exemptions to vaccinations while maintaining that only medical exemptions may be allowed. This solution preserves public health interests while respecting the parental interests highlighted by Kittay and Ruddick and therefore consolidates care ethics and policy objectives.
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