Many childhood
disease can now be prevented through the use of vaccines.
Should parents be
made by law to immunize their children against common diseases or should
individuals have the right to choose not to immunize their children?
Radical advancements in medicine have
afforded humanity a potent weapon that can help them overcome several diseases,
right from the childhood, with help of a simple vaccination. This has, however,
raised a moral and an ethical argument whether parents should be allowed to
exercise their discretion of evading vaccinations for their little ones. I
feel, this is an idea worthy of indignation, and any such rights must be
wrested from the parents.
Health is a state subject; hence, to ensure
that everybody in a country stays healthy, governments should be vested with
the jurisdiction to decide providing safeguards to the populace, including inoculating
young ones. Failing this, health budget allocations for combative measures are
bound to shoot through the roof, when growing children would be afflicted by
the ailments that could have been avoided by a simple medical intervention.
These very parents, who chose to evade
immunization, would come back asking for
medical assistance for children who missed out critical preventive treatment.
Moreover, letting parents circumventing
vaccination process, for their wards, would
amount to jeopardizing the very future of the society; the present state of
physical and mental health of young ones helps forecast how the society would
fare in the future. In case, little ones are plagued by ailments, that could
have been avoided, and that could actually turn serious at a later stage, would
cast an evil shadow on not only the overall health index of society but also impede
productivity.