Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Moral Obligations- Self and Family

“Parents have the most grave obligation and the primary right to do all in their power to ensure their children's physical, social, cultural, moral and religious upbringing.” CCL 1136

Children depend on their parents to protect them from harm and parents are morally obligated to do what is best for their children. A vaccine is protection from a disease; therefore it is a parent’s moral obligation to vaccinate their children to protect them from any diseases they could otherwise possibly contract. It would be risky for a parent to send their child to school and possibly bring home any one of the illnesses children are vaccinated for because the parent denied the child the vaccine. This puts the parent and the rest of the family at risk for contracting the disease.
Usually parents should have autonomy to make decisions on raising their child. However, when a child is put at risk of contracting a potentially deadly disease, a parent’s autonomy may be infringed. The United States has made the decision that childhood vaccinations are compulsory, meaning the parents are obligated to vaccinate their children.
It has been argued that the risks of vaccines out way the benefits, however this has been proven to be not true. So in reality there is no real reason a parent or child should not want to be vaccinated. Vaccines are safe as long as they are given correctly at the right amount and at the right age.
Parents are morally obligated to vaccinate their child to prevent them from:
1) Getting ill
2) Passing the illness on to other children at school
3) Passing the illness on to family members at home

2 comments:

  1. Parents also have an obligation to raise their children and in their own way how they see fit. If they don't agree with the practice of vaccination for any reason is this considered neglecting their child? If a parent feels vaccination is not safe and choose not to expose their child to it, in their view, they are protecting them.

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  2. we are morally obligated to protect our children after reading about all the deaths linked to vaccines it would be wise to reconsider certain vaccinations

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