Parents Should Vaccinate Children - Argumentative Essay

Introduction

The debate on whether to vaccinate children or not has raged in the recent past in light of conspiracy theories suggesting that vaccinations are laced with harmful components that affect the health and well-being of the children. Defenders of vaccination have insisted on the importance of vaccinations as a preventative option to the more expensive or unattainable treatment solutions for diseases and conditions that either have no cures or are very difficult to treat. On the other hand, opponents of vaccination point to the notion that vaccines are laced with harmful components that have effects ranging from Attention Deficit Disorder among children to infertility among adults. Both factions present various reasons for the positions assumed. However, it is apparent that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the costs. In that regard, parents should be compelled to vaccinate their children because vaccinated children stand a better chance of survival, moreover, vaccinations enhance the health of the community at large.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

First, vaccines should be mandatory because it is a public health concern.(Department of Health & Human Services). Despite the fact that parents have a right to determine the course of healthcare for their children, it is important for the same parents to also consider the health of other children who are their own. Vaccinations are critical to taming the spread of a disease that would otherwise spread without control especially among children. Take the case of chicken pox. If a child who is not vaccinated against chickenpox happens to be infected, there is a great chance that the same child can spread the disease to other children. In that regard, not vaccinating your child is equivalent to putting all children who come into contact with your child at risk of getting infected with a communicable disease. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that all children are vaccinated to reduce the chance of un-vaccinated children serving as agents for the spread of communicable diseases (Damnjanovic, Graeber and Ilic). To that extent, it is necessary to compel parents to vaccinate their children because inevitably it becomes a matter of public health and not merely jurisdiction over their child.

Secondly, vaccines should be mandatory because prevention is better than cure. According to Smith, the media has accorded too much audience and airtime to the leftist side of the debate, which is not in support of vaccinations as a right of parents to make choices on behalf of their children and their children's welfare (2). However, Smith argues that this logic lacks a touch of reality given that children who are exposed to a lifestyle of non-vaccinations stand a greater chance of succumbing to various diseases that could have simply been avoided altogether if the vaccines were taken (4). In that regard, it is unfair to the children that they should endure a disease such as measles or chicken pox given that a timely vaccination would have been adequate to prevent the occurrence of the disease. Worse still, parents who refuse to vaccinate their children put them at risk of permanent health defects in case they contract diseases such as polio, for instance, which is not only incurable but also leaves the child lame and grows up to be a cripple all his or her life (Smith 6). Equally, for this reason, the requirement to vaccinate children should be made mandatory for all parents.

Thirdly, vaccinations should be mandatory because they are scientifically proven to be safe for children. According to Damnjanovic et al., vaccines are only administered to children after careful research and tests have been conducted on them by qualified scientists. Moreover, the side-effects that are associated with vaccines such as soreness, temporary pain, and discomfort are not nearly as severe as the effects of the diseases that vaccines prevent. Parents should, therefore, be made aware of the fact that vaccines are released only after careful research has been conducted to ensure that they are safe. For that reason, parents should not worry about the wellbeing of their children once they take the vaccines since they are tested and proven to be safe. Furthermore, parents should recognize the benefit of vaccines in saving them costs of treating or managing complications that would otherwise arise from the complications of diseases that could have been prevented through vaccination (Department of Health & Human Services). To that extent, it is necessary to ensure that parents understand the safety precautions that are taken in developing vaccines in an attempt to build confidence and trust of parents in the safety that is in the use of vaccines (Damnjanovic et al.).

Notwithstanding, compelling reasons behind parents refusal of vaccines offer sound arguments that should not be ignored. According to McKee and Bohannon, one of the reasons parents should be allowed to refuse vaccinations for their children is religion. The argument posed is that religion teaches that the Almighty God creator of Heaven and Earth did provide immunity for children, therefore, vaccines are not necessary (106). Another reason why parents should be allowed to make their informed decision on whether to vaccinate their children concerns the lack of information. It is apparent that most vaccinations are released by the government through fear mongering campaigns without properly informing the member of the public on the risks associated with non-vaccination. Moreover, such vaccination campaigns do not also inform members of the public on the health effects of vaccines such as side effects that arise later on. For these reasons, parents have legitimate concerns regarding the genuineness of vaccinations as pertains to meeting the intended or communicated outcome against the suspicion that a sinister motive is at play (McKee and Bohannon 108). The reservations by parents as regards to vaccine present a valid argument as to why they refuse vaccinations for their children and, therefore, such parents with such reservations should be accorded the right to refuse vaccines.

Conclusion

Essentially, the reasons discussed herein for making vaccinations mandatory are three-fold. First, because vaccinations are a concern of public health, parents and members of the community at large should allow children to be vaccinated for the simple reason that vaccination will reduce the risk of the spread of communicable diseases. Secondly, the paper discussed the fact that vaccinations are safe, having undergone a rigorous process of scientific testing and research to enhance its safety when children are vaccinated. Thirdly, the discussion also presented the argument that prevention is better than cure where it was elaborated that vaccines have far more benefits than harm to those who are vaccinated. For these reasons, vaccines should be made mandatory and parents should be compelled to vaccinate their children as discussed.

Works Cited

Damnjanovic, Kaja, et al. "Parental Decision-Making on Childhood Vaccination." Frontiers in Psychology 9.735 (2018). <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6008886/>.

Department of Health & Human Services. Five important reasons to vaccinate your child. January 2018. 25 03 2019. <https://www.vaccines.gov/getting/for_parents/five_reasons>.

McKee, Chephra and Kristin Bohannon. "Exploring the reasons behind parental refusal of vaccines." Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology Therapeutics 21.2 (2016): 104-109. 26 03 2019.

Smith, Tara C. Vaccine rejection and hesitancy: A review and call to action. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. Kent, OH: Oxford University Press, 2017. 26 03 2019.