Opt-out vaccination in school and daycare: Reconciling parental authority and obligations.

Bioethics

Department of Political Science and Centre for the Experimental-Philosophical Study of Discrimination (CEPDISC), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.

Published: November 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • There is a growing trend of vaccine hesitancy among parents, leading to lower immunization rates and prompting a need to rethink childhood vaccination approaches.
  • Parents' decisions about vaccinating their children are heavily affected by cognitive biases, which can be leveraged to boost vaccination rates by altering how choices are presented.
  • Implementing opt-out vaccination programs in schools or daycare respects parental authority while promoting the moral responsibility most parents feel to vaccinate their kids.

Article Abstract

An increasing vaccine hesitancy among parents, which has resulted in insufficient rates of immunization, provides reason to reconsider childhood vaccination practices. Studies suggest that parents' decision-making process concerning whether to vaccinate their child is highly influenced by cognitive biases. These biases can be utilized to increase vaccination uptake via changes in the choice context. This article considers childhood vaccination programmes, which involve children being vaccinated in school or daycare unless their parents actively 'opt out'. We suggest that such programmes reconcile parents' decisional authority and vaccination duties. First, opt-out childhood vaccination based in schools or daycare centres are not disrespectful of parental authority. Second, the programme aligns the default setting with a moral obligation to vaccinate one's child that most parents have.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bioe.13344DOI Listing

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