Diplomatic Immunity: Ethics in Vaccine Policy

In this thesis, I first describe three strategies used around the world to encourage or enforce vaccination. I then review the vaccine standards of both the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization and present a number of common reasons used by individuals to justify vaccine refusal. I then outline a number of ethical tenets that can be used to evaluate vaccine policies and apply those principles to the policies described above. In this evaluation, I assert that ethical vaccine policies should not seek either to punish individuals for exercising their right to autonomy or to coerce them with threats. Rather, they should attempt to ensure the maintenance of public safety among vaccine compliant individuals and those who are unable to vaccinate for health-related reasons rather than elective ones.