Friday, October 08, 2021

Is vaccination a personal choice?

Like last year, I have a very front-loaded teaching schedule, so posts may be a bit more sporadic between now and Christmas. Still, I'll try to post the odd piece of interest when I get chance. Here is another that I may use in my classes this semester.


West Brom and Republic of Ireland footballer Callum Robinson hasn't been vaccinated. He is reported as saying "I think it's your personal choice and my choice at this moment in time, I haven't been vaccinated".


The Football Association of Ireland concur, saying that they "respect and accept the right of all individuals to make a personal choice on Covid-19 vaccination".


I'm not clear why this 'personal choice' is seemingly accepted here without question. While bodily integrity is at stake, the decision is not what might be called (in Millian terms) 'purely self-regarding' because someone who is not vaccinated may pose a greater risk to other people. This could justify intervention.


Jessica Flanigan makes this point in a 2014 article, where she argues that “Non-vaccination has been mistakenly characterized as a personal, self-regarding medical choice…. people are entitled to make self-regarding medically inadvisable decisions…. But religious and other reasons of conscience cannot justify practices that impose risks on the community”.

 

To be sure, Flanigan doesn't (so far as I'm aware) support forced vaccinations. So, there is indeed a sense in which she thinks people do have a right to refuse vaccination. But this is not a right to refuse vaccination without suffering consequences. She thinks they could (and should) be penalised through fines or certain restrictions on employment.

 

I think I'll be using some, if not all, of these quotations in my lecture slides, possibly in multiple modules.

4 comments:

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  2. No, it is not. Vaccination is not a personal choice They didn't say that clearly but restaurants, malls, hospitals, parks, flights, etc don't allow them to go without a vaccination card. Even you can not go to your work and can not allow ou to give an interview without vaccination card so you have to get vaccinated because there is no other choice.

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  3. Nowadays vaccination is important if you are not vaccinated then there are some places that you can't visit like restaurants, shopping malls, cinemas, and even offices. In most offices, vaccination is required if you are not vaccinated then they will not take you to an interview or either let you work in the office. So you have to get vaccinated to access these places.

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