Anti-Vaccination: Legal or Illegal?

When children are first born, they receive vaccinations, which are substances that increase a child’s immunity to diseases. Although most parents choose to have their child vaccinated, some parents believe that vaccines can cause their children to receive diseases such as asthma, arthritis, or autism. This decision made by many parents has started what is now known as “The Anti-Vaccination Movement”, a collective of parents who believe that they should choose not to vaccinate their kids, because vaccines are seen as “dangerous” and “harmful”. Although parents are given the choice whether to vaccinate their children or not, vaccination within newborn children should be required in order to prevent any effective diseases from potentially killing a certain child. Parents do not want to vaccinate their children are directly shortening the lives of their children by not increasing their child’s immunity to diseases that can potentially harm them.  The uses of vaccines are essential for children to prevent diseases such as chickenpox, measles, and influenza, in which numerous diseases could kill a child. The choice of anti vaccination should be illegal, because it is killing many children at a very young age and it only allows multiple diseases to affect a child.

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 Although the use of vaccines may support children by making them immune to diseases, many parents in the United States believe that vaccinating children is unessential and harmful to their children. Physician Joseph Mercola believes that parents have “every legal right” to protect their children from health risks that vaccinations may cause, which proves that parents should be given the choice not to vaccinate their children (“Zero Tolerance Vaccine Laws in America: Will You Defend Vaccine Freedom? NVIC Newsletter”). Many doctors believe that parents should protect their kids from the risks of vaccines, such as death, seizures, and autism, according to the National Vaccine Information Center (“Vaccinations? Know the Risks and Failures; Diseases and Vaccines; NVIC.”).  Parents that support the anti-vaccination movement believe that diseases such as measles and smallpox can spread among the community, disregarding the use of vaccines.  However, without the use of vaccines, diseases contain a high risk of spreading and could potentially kill many children.

Vaccines are needed in order to prevent a detrimental disease from entering a child’s body. For example, many children are required to take “flu shots” at middle/high school to prevent the flu from spreading across schools. The spread of diseases such as the flu can cause many children to be hemmed or die, due to the lack of use of vaccines. According to ProConorg Headlines, overall, 68% of adults believe that early childhood vaccinations should be required (“Should Any Vaccines Be Required for Children?”), proving that more than half of adults agree that vaccinations are necessary. Parents that choose not to vaccinate their kids are not only shortening the lives of their children, but they negatively encourage other parents to become against vaccines. The Anti Vaccination movement has caused a negative effect on society, by negatively influencing parents to not vaccinate their kids because vaccines are “ineffective” and “harmful.” However, vaccines are substances that are used only to increase a child’s immunity, and are not harmful in any way. Vaccines are proven to encourage a child’s healthy lifestyle by preventing any harmful diseases; therefore the vaccination of newborn children should be required to increase immunity, in which “anti-vaccination” only shortens the life of children.

Additionally, choosing to vaccinate children also saves the lives of other children, mainly in schools. As previously stated, many middle/high schools across the U.S. are required to give “flu shots” to incoming students in order to prevent them from spreading diseases across their schools. Although parents may choose to not vaccinate their kids, they are not only risking the life of their own child, but they risk the lives of other children by sending their un-vaccinated child to school. This can allow many diseases such as “measles and chickenpox” to become contagious among middle/high school students, and could “potentially kill many students” (“Parents | Diseases You Almost Forgot Thanks to Vaccines” 4). A major harmful disease known as smallpox was first introduced in 10^th Century B.C. and the spread of smallpox caused many in Eastern Asia to be killed due to the lack of any source of epidemics in that time period. However, in 1796, according to Measles and Rubella Initiative, the first smallpox vaccine was introduced, and caused many people with the disease to be cured (“The Anti-Vaccination Movement, ” Measles & Rubella Initiative). Throughout time, new diseases were introduced, along with vaccines to cure this certain diseases, which has prevented millions of people from dying. The use of vaccines in schools is essential to prevent students from dying, and therefore proves that the vaccination of newborn babies should be required by the government to prevent the death of millions of students in schools.

 Vaccines have created a healthier world for people across the world by preventing their children from receiving harmful and contagious diseases such as chickenpox and rubella. The anti vaccination movement has only brought negative influences upon the world by encouraging parents to shorten the lives of their children. The use of vaccination does not harm newborn babies in anyway, but they instead allow them to live in peace without the threats of diseases. Although parents are given the choice not to vaccinate their children, the government has the right to classify “anti-vaccination” as illegal in order to prevent the death of many children and the spread of contagious diseases.

Works Cited Page

• “Parents | Diseases You Almost Forgot Thanks to Vaccines | CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/diseases/child/14-diseases.html.
• “Should Any Vaccines Be Required for Children?” ProConorg Headlines,vaccines.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001606.
• “The Anti-Vaccination Movement.” Measles & Rubella Initiative, 13 Sept. 2018, measlesrubellainitiative.org/anti-vaccination-movement/.
• “Vaccinations? Know the Risks and Failures – Diseases and Vaccines – NVIC.” National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), National Vaccine Information Center, www.nvic.org/vaccines-and-diseases/Vaccinations–Know-the-risks-and-failures-.aspx.
• “Zero Tolerance Vaccine Laws in America: Will You Defend Vaccine Freedom? – NVIC Newsletter.” National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), www.nvic.org/nvic-vaccine-news/july-2018/zero-tolerance-vaccine-laws-in-america.aspx