In 1796 Edward Jenner created the first vaccination for the major epidemic of smallpox. Since then vaccinations have been one of communal health’s greatest accomplishments. However, there is an ethical dilemma that lies within the realm of vaccinations; the autonomous decision of the person to become vaccinated versus the protection of a susceptible population. Vaccines have become readily available in most parts of the world, yet disputes about how suitable the requirements are for vaccinations, including legal mandates of vaccinations when a public health emergency arises and more consistently making children receive required vaccinations before entry into school are still continuing. In this paper it will be made clear what deontology and utilitarianism pose when it comes to becoming vaccinated, a legal issue pick a legal issue and the types of nursing implications that can be implied when the issues of vaccinations arise.
Ethical Theories/Approaches
For many centuries, societies have wrestled with the question of how to balance the rights of the individual versus the greater good; is it acceptable to ignore a person’s rights in order to increase the overall well-being of a larger number of people? There are many contemporary examples that the nature of this issue …show more content…
According to the principle of deontology, it is an “approach to ethics focused on duties and rules” (Rich, 2016). From this perspective, violations of duties and rules, or categorical imperatives, are unacceptable regardless of the anticipated outcomes (e.g. shooting an abducted passenger plane is always an immoral thing to do and it violates the moral norm to not kill others) (Gawronski, 2016 ). Kant proposed that people should follow a universal, unconditional framework of rules as a guide to know the rightness of actions and one’s moral duties (Rich,
Ethical Theories/Approaches
For many centuries, societies have wrestled with the question of how to balance the rights of the individual versus the greater good; is it acceptable to ignore a person’s rights in order to increase the overall well-being of a larger number of people? There are many contemporary examples that the nature of this issue …show more content…
According to the principle of deontology, it is an “approach to ethics focused on duties and rules” (Rich, 2016). From this perspective, violations of duties and rules, or categorical imperatives, are unacceptable regardless of the anticipated outcomes (e.g. shooting an abducted passenger plane is always an immoral thing to do and it violates the moral norm to not kill others) (Gawronski, 2016 ). Kant proposed that people should follow a universal, unconditional framework of rules as a guide to know the rightness of actions and one’s moral duties (Rich,