Should Vaccination Be Mandatory Essay Example

What if you had the right of choosing what is best for your health taken away from you? Government-mandated vaccines would take away this choice from you. Citizens need to have the right to choose what is best for them. If someone does not want to do something, in this case, receive a vaccine, they should not be forced to. Some people contend that mandated government vaccinations help protect the population’s health when it is put at risk; nonetheless, the government should not interfere with people's right to choose whether or not they want to be vaccinated, doing so goes against their right to do what is best for their health.

Vaccinations prescribed by the government violates the right that people have to make their own decisions. There are others who agree with me, for example, the article “Mandatory Vaccination Is Not the Answer to Measles” written by the pediatrician and author Dr. Bob Sears. In this article, Sears states “Now it's become a banner under which politicians gather to threaten one of our most sacred rights—the right to give informed consent for medical treatment.” This sentence supports exactly what I am trying to get across. Is enforcing laws for people to get vaccinated without their consent the correct thing to do?

There are others who do not agree with my view on this topic, some believe that the government should mandate vaccines and not let people decide what is best for their health. The sentence, “Persons and property are subjected to all kinds of restraints and burdens, in order to secure the general comfort, health, and prosperity of the State” in an article from the Supreme Court Case on Jacobson v. Massachusetts, shows that the government would rather take away the decision of choosing what is best for your health than think of other ways to protect a community without taking away the right to decide your medical decisions. There are other ways to protect a population without taking the rights of a person.

Take for example the article on herd immunity “On Immunity: An Inoculation” by Eula Biss. In this article, Biss discusses the good that herd immunity has on a population. The sentence, “The unvaccinated person is protected by the bodies around her, bodies through which disease is not circulating.” states that not everyone is vaccinated, which means you would have the right to choose if you want to be vaccinated. Whether you choose the be vaccinated or not, the safety of your community would not be at risk with herd immunity. Examples like this show that government-mandated vaccines are not necessary.

While some claim that government-mandated vaccinations are for the well-being of yourself and others around you, it is not right to be forced to do something you don’t want to do. There are many other ways to provide our communities protection from diseases. The government should not take away our right to choose what is best for ourselves. Would you put your health decisions in the hands of the government? The government needs to understand that they do not have the right to choose what is best for our health. The government has no right to interfere in personal medical decisions.