Bradley P
Northamptonshire Health Authority.
J Med Ethics. 1999 Aug;25(4):330-4. doi: 10.1136/jme.25.4.330.
Immunisation is offered to all age groups in the UK, but is mainly given to infants and school-age children. Such immunisation is not compulsory, in contrast to other countries, such as the United States. Levels of immunisation are generally very high in the UK, but the rates of immunisation vary with the public perception of the risk of side effects. This article discusses whether compulsory vaccination is acceptable by considering individual cases where parents have failed to give consent or have explicitly refused consent for their children to be immunised. In particular, the rights of: a parent to rear his/her child according to his/her own standards; the child to receive health care, and the community to be protected from vaccine-preventable infectious disease are considered. The conclusion of the article is that compulsory vaccination cannot, with very few exceptions, be justified in the UK, in view of the high levels of population immunity which currently exist.
在英国，免疫接种面向所有年龄组，但主要针对婴儿和学龄儿童。与美国等其他国家不同，这种免疫接种并非强制性的。在英国，免疫接种水平总体上非常高，但免疫接种率会因公众对副作用风险的认知而有所不同。本文通过考虑个别案例来讨论强制接种疫苗是否可接受，这些案例中父母未能给予同意或明确拒绝让其子女接种疫苗。具体而言，文章考虑了以下几方面的权利：父母按照自己的标准抚养孩子的权利；孩子接受医疗保健的权利；以及社区免受疫苗可预防传染病侵害的权利。文章的结论是，鉴于目前英国较高的人群免疫力水平，除极少数例外情况外，强制接种疫苗在英国是不合理的。
