Vaccines have been around for more than two hundred years. Humanity’s journey to rid itself of terrible diseases and death that have plagued it regularly began with Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccine in 1796 with the use of cowpox antigens. From there, vaccines crawled toward progress until Louis Pasteur’s breakthrough with the introduction of the rabies vaccine in 1885. After this point in history, vaccines made rapid leaps of progress that led to the development of a wide range of vaccines including anthrax, polio, and tuberculosis (College of Physicians of Philadelphia, n.d.). Nowadays, vaccines have become commonplace, a fixture within modern society that is often taken for granted. In today’s society, the topic of mandatory vaccinations
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Kantian ethics operate opposite of utilitarianism: the means and the motivations behind an action are what matter, not the end that is achieved. In this ethical system, moral truths known as categorical imperatives act as rules that one is morally obligated to follow at all times. These categorical imperatives are discovered by evaluating an action and discovering its underlying maxim. For mandatory vaccination, the underlying maxim or rule that enforcing a law in order to protect people. Once the maxim is found, one must then imagine if they would want this rule to be universalized and followed by everyone and if the maxim can remain logically sound. Mandatory vaccinations’ maxim of enforcing a rule in order to protect people is a maxim that is not only logically sound, but is already being used by many existing laws; therefore, mandatory vaccination is ethical. By getting vaccinated, one carries out their duty of protecting themselves and those around them from illness and harm. Vaccination is also a very rational thing to do; with the benefits and safety they provide, it would be very unreasonable to leave oneself open to the dangerous but vaccine preventable diseases of the world. Not vaccinating oneself would be irrational in a way similar to going out into freezing temperature weather with no clothes on: one could easily protect themselves, but they choose not
Kantian ethics operate opposite of utilitarianism: the means and the motivations behind an action are what matter, not the end that is achieved. In this ethical system, moral truths known as categorical imperatives act as rules that one is morally obligated to follow at all times. These categorical imperatives are discovered by evaluating an action and discovering its underlying maxim. For mandatory vaccination, the underlying maxim or rule that enforcing a law in order to protect people. Once the maxim is found, one must then imagine if they would want this rule to be universalized and followed by everyone and if the maxim can remain logically sound. Mandatory vaccinations’ maxim of enforcing a rule in order to protect people is a maxim that is not only logically sound, but is already being used by many existing laws; therefore, mandatory vaccination is ethical. By getting vaccinated, one carries out their duty of protecting themselves and those around them from illness and harm. Vaccination is also a very rational thing to do; with the benefits and safety they provide, it would be very unreasonable to leave oneself open to the dangerous but vaccine preventable diseases of the world. Not vaccinating oneself would be irrational in a way similar to going out into freezing temperature weather with no clothes on: one could easily protect themselves, but they choose not