Should the state be allowed to impose vaccinations, or should the choice be left up to the child’s parents?

Hannah Poling, a 19 month old, was diagnosed with autism shortly after receiving five vaccinations in one day. Before receiving these vaccinations Hannah was a healthy child without any characteristic of autism. The Polings, believing the vaccines to have caused her change, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services, and won. The courts ruled that the vaccines she had received were responsible for her condition (Healy). This story is just one example of the growing fear and opposition from parents towards vaccines. Likewise, the verdict reached by the courts resulted in an outcry from promoters of vaccines as they fear the negative effects this decision could have on public health. On the one hand, it is argued that the state should be allowed to enforce mandatory vaccinations as this is in our children’s best interest. On the other side of the debate, parents should have a right to decide what is injected into their child’s body, especially when the substance could cause permanent harm or death. Strong arguments have been presented to support both sides, and some of these arguments will be examined in detail.

Federal laws mandating vaccines do not exist; nonetheless, each state has its own mandatory state laws. All 50 states allow medical exemption from vaccine and some states allow religious or philosophical exemptions. It has been reported that since the 1990s states which allowed religious and philosophical exemption saw a 250% increase in non-medical exemptions. This drastic increase has vaccine supporters worried. They argue that these types of exemptions should be more difficult to obtain as there are serious negative consequences from not vaccinating every child that can be safely vaccinated. They...

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...nly now are we more aware of autism and so more cases are reported.

Experts believe that failure to vaccinate your child based on unfounded and inconclusive reports will only result in an increase of infectious diseases. This fear is seen in a statement given by some of the most respected medical professionals; “Using an unsubstantiated hypothesis to question the safety of vaccination . . . could lead to widespread rejection of vaccines and inevitable increases of serious infectious disease” (qtd. in Allen 411). Some studies have revealed that in places where vaccines have been associated with autism vaccinations go down, and consequently, certain diseases resurface or grow in number (Autism and Vaccines). Overall, though vaccinations are accompanied by risks, they are also the best defence against our children developing many deadly infectious diseases (Meadows).