Immunization for children is their parents’ choice in modern society, and there are discussions about the health outcomes of giving such responsibility to them. The government of the United States recommends parents to accept immunization and offers the opportunity for the young part of the nation to receive vaccination during the school years (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). This research paper aims to discuss the question if vaccines should be required for children and adolescents.
Many scientific and medical articles support the government’s point that all children have the immunization, at least for the vaccine-preventable diseases. For example, the research “Vaccination Confidence and Parental Refusal/Delay of Early Childhood Vaccines” written by Gilkey et al. collected the National Immunization Survey data filled by 9,354 parents (Gilkey et al., 2016). The key point of the article is that, according to its findings, more parents trust the immunization and support it if they vaccinate children from the earliest age. Moreover, the research revealed that vaccination confidence decreases if a child does not receive the most necessary shots on time (Gilkey et al., 2016). The source’s main argument is that if the immunization is timely made for children in their first two years of life, it should be required to let them have vaccines at school age as well.
The article’s findings are reasonable as they are gained from analyzing the broad nationwide scope of data. Moreover, the research is peer-reviewed and was supported by the Academic Pediatric Association Young Investigator Award, thus its results are high-quality and reliable. The article adequately endorses that vaccination should be required or at least stay preferable for parents by revealing the research results. Gilkey et al. (2016) state that “our findings provide strong support for broadening the application of the Vaccination Confidence Scale to measure parents’ beliefs about childhood vaccination” (p. 10). The address to the analyzed data makes the arguments more objective and makes a reader think that if many parents of the US children vaccinate them routinely, it is a proper healthcare approach.
The vaccination of school-aged children is not obligatory in the US due to the ethical respect of parental autonomy in the decision-making process. Thus, some articles support the statement that vaccination for children should not be required. American Journal of Law & Medicine published a research article Informed Consent to Vaccination, the authors of which argue against vaccination requirements among school-aged children (Reiss & Karako-Eyal, 2019). The data was gained by comparing the concepts of health authorities and the values of Israel and the US. The article’s key points are that the immunization obligation is unnecessary if parents are educated enough, and, considering the ethical principle of autonomy, the government must not be involved in the decision-making process (Reiss & Karako-Eyal, 2019). The main argument is more related to laws than medicine, yet the article provides statistics about diseases and awareness about the vaccination value.
The research results are reasonable as they were gained by analyzing two countries with similar values yet different history, government, and medical policies. Reiss and Karako-Eyal (2019) claim that “drawing on the extensive theoretical and empirical literature, this article sets out what an ideal informed consent process for vaccination creates the need for autonomous decisions” (p. 358). The volume of sources and the literature supporting the main point reveals that the topic is broadly studied, and many scientists support the article’s statements.
The peer-reviewed articles provide argumentative data, yet it might not affect the average person’s opinion because the latter is more likely to search for the information in popular resources. The popular articles must provide the data that lets parents decide on their own instead of sharing the opinion of a source and state it as the truth. For example, the ProCon website has Should Any Vaccines Be Required for Children? article that contains ten advantages of the obligatory vaccination and nine drawbacks of child immunization based on history, science, and medical research data (Should any vaccines be required for children, 2020). The text’s reasoning is high-quality: it includes links to the data from multiple sources, has no author, and leaves the decision-making if the vaccination should be required for a reader.
The target audience also influences the value of the arguments provided in an article. The audience of peer-reviewed materials often contains people who have a degree or education specific to a topic and can discuss the points by using their medical or scientific background while evaluating the necessity of required vaccination. It can motivate the authors to use more general statements or support governmental opinions to avoid legal issues. The target audience in popular sources is more open-minded to discover new information that might improve their children’s health. The authors try to make the data easier to understand and be motivated to use some points of view as preferred due to the source’s main topic or the editors’ and owners’ requirements. It is more trustworthy to reach multiple peer-reviewed sources to decide if the vaccination should be required as such articles are written by people with access to medical and scientific data.
When multiple sources are checked to discover the data about the opposite points of an issue, they should be peer-reviewed and the subject should match the field of the discussed question. Good research has to include entries from various sources, and if their main points are opposite, more data is required for the proper decision-making process. Scientific data can be compared to the popular sources’ information as it provides a researcher with a broader view of the discussed issue.
References
Gilkey, M. B., McRee, A. L., Magnus, B. E., Reiter, P. L., Dempsey, A. F., & Brewer, N. T. (2016). Vaccination confidence and parental refusal/delay of early childhood vaccines. PloS One, 11(7), 1-12. Web.
Reiss, D. R., & Karako-Eyal, N. (2019). Informed consent to vaccination: theoretical, legal, and empirical insights. American Journal of Law & Medicine, 45(4), 357-419. Web.
Should any vaccines be required for children? (2020). ProCon.org. Web.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). The vaccines for children: Information for parents. Web.