Parasidis Efthimios, Opel Douglas J
Efthimios Parasidis is with the Moritz College of Law and the College of Public Health, The Ohio State University, Columbus. Douglas J. Opel is with the Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, and Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle.
Am J Public Health. 2017 Jan;107(1):68-71. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303500. Epub 2016 Nov 17.
To examine the relation of vaccine refusal and medical neglect under child welfare laws.
We used the Westlaw legal database to search court opinions from 1905 to 2016 and identified cases in which vaccine refusal was the sole or a primary reason in a neglect proceeding. We also delineated if religious or philosophical exemptions from required school immunizations were available at the time of adjudication.
Our search yielded 9 cases from 5 states. Most courts (7 of 9) considered vaccine refusal to constitute neglect. In the 4 cases decided in jurisdictions that permitted religious exemptions, courts either found that vaccine refusal did not constitute neglect or considered it neglect only in the absence of a sincere religious objection to vaccination.
Some states have a legal precedent for considering parental vaccine refusal as medical neglect, but this is based on a small number of cases. Each state should clarify whether, under its laws, vaccine refusal constitutes medical neglect.
探讨儿童福利法下疫苗拒绝与医疗忽视之间的关系。
我们使用Westlaw法律数据库检索了1905年至2016年的法院判决书，并确定了疫苗拒绝是忽视诉讼中唯一或主要原因的案例。我们还划定了在判决时是否有宗教或哲学豁免所需学校免疫接种的情况。
我们的检索从5个州得到了9个案例。大多数法院（9个中的7个）认为疫苗拒绝构成忽视。在允许宗教豁免的司法管辖区判决的4个案例中，法院要么认定疫苗拒绝不构成忽视，要么仅在没有真诚的宗教反对接种的情况下才将其视为忽视。
一些州有将父母拒绝疫苗视为医疗忽视的法律先例，但这是基于少数案例。每个州都应阐明根据其法律，疫苗拒绝是否构成医疗忽视。
