TY - JOUR
T1 - Mandatory vaccination
T2 - a joint statement of the Ethics and Vaccination working groups of the European Academy of Paediatrics
AU - Hadjipanayis, Adamos
AU - Dornbusch, Hans Jürgen
AU - Grossman, Zachi
AU - Theophilou, Leda
AU - Brierley, Joe
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - Vaccinating children is amongst the most cost-effective interventions for reducing children’s morbidity and mortality. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children despite having been informed about the evidence on safety and efficacy of vaccines may seriously jeopardise the health of both their own children and others. Contemporary ethical thinking about the limits of parental decision-making over their children’s healthcare treatment often considers the zone of parental discretion. However, with vaccination this is slightly less direct as the benefits are not only accumulated by an individual child but also by children as a population. Forcing parents is of course not the only solution to counteracting the fear of vaccines. Health authorities should certainly fund research and deploy resources on combatting vaccine disinformation. Conclusion: It would be preferable to achieve high rates of vaccination coverage by educating both parents and physicians without adopting any legislation for mandatory vaccination. However, in countries where vaccination uptake is low and/or outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases occur, the implementation of mandatory vaccination will most probably save children’s lives. EAP calls for action to make all scheduled childhood vaccinations a matter of fact for all European children.
AB - Vaccinating children is amongst the most cost-effective interventions for reducing children’s morbidity and mortality. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children despite having been informed about the evidence on safety and efficacy of vaccines may seriously jeopardise the health of both their own children and others. Contemporary ethical thinking about the limits of parental decision-making over their children’s healthcare treatment often considers the zone of parental discretion. However, with vaccination this is slightly less direct as the benefits are not only accumulated by an individual child but also by children as a population. Forcing parents is of course not the only solution to counteracting the fear of vaccines. Health authorities should certainly fund research and deploy resources on combatting vaccine disinformation. Conclusion: It would be preferable to achieve high rates of vaccination coverage by educating both parents and physicians without adopting any legislation for mandatory vaccination. However, in countries where vaccination uptake is low and/or outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases occur, the implementation of mandatory vaccination will most probably save children’s lives. EAP calls for action to make all scheduled childhood vaccinations a matter of fact for all European children.
KW - European Academy of Paediatrics
KW - Mandatory vaccines
KW - Vaccine hesitancy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075933233&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00431-019-03523-4
DO - 10.1007/s00431-019-03523-4
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C2 - 31773329
AN - SCOPUS:85075933233
SN - 0340-6199
VL - 179
SP - 683
EP - 687
JO - European Journal of Pediatrics
JF - European Journal of Pediatrics
IS - 4
ER -