Plenty of folks claim to be experts on vaccines.
Some are experts because they study epidemiology, others because they study immunology or infectious disease.
And then there are the experts in vaccination ethics.
Who Is Arthur Caplan?
With a Ph.D. in the history of philosophy of science, Dr. Art Caplan went on to co-found The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute.
He has since written dozens of books and nearly a thousand articles in peer-reviewed journals, working most recently at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, where he is the founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics.
“When politicians ignore the evidence, fail to cite appropriate medical authorities, and rely on hearsay and rumor, with the result that people — out of ignorance or error — don’t vaccinate their children, we can and should deny them elective office. When a doctor does so, we should demand that he forfeit his right to use his medical degree to misinform, confuse or lie.”
Arthur L. Caplan on Revoke the license of any doctor who opposes vaccination
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Art Caplan has a lot to say about vaccines.
“Faulty ethical thinking is to blame. We are elevating parents’ rights to make misinformed decisions over the rights of children to get important vaccines. Infants and young children are blocked from receiving their routine childhood immunizations by parents who espouse an aberrant ideology of choice or are being duped by anti-vaccine groups. In so doing, they are violating children’s rights to health, welfare and equal opportunity.”
Arthur L. Caplan and Peter J. Hotez on Anti-vaccine misinformation denies children’s rights
He also has a lot to say about measles, other vaccine-preventable diseases, and how to get control back before these outbreaks turn into true epidemics.
“What should we be doing to protect our communities, our children, and ourselves? We should halt the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation and take steps to stop nonmedical vaccine exemptions. We need to restore vaccines and vaccinations as the “new normal” in America.”
Arthur L Caplan on Let’s Treat Measles Seriously
Are you still thinking about skipping or delaying your child’s vaccines?
After reading some of Dr. Caplan’s work, you should know that it’s not safe, has no benefits, and isn’t the ethical thing to do.
More on Arthur Caplan and Vaccine Ethics
- VAXOPEDIA – Making America Measly Again
- VAXOPEDIA – 100 Myths About Vaccines
- VAXOPEDIA – Anti-Vaccine Points Refuted A Thousand Times
- VAXOPEDIA – The Moral Responsibility of the Anti-Vaccine Movement
- VAXOPEDIA – What Is the Evidence for Alternative Vaccine Schedules?
- Let’s Treat Measles Seriously
- Revoke the license of any doctor who opposes vaccination
- Liability for Failure to Vaccinate
- Anti-vaccine misinformation denies children’s rights
- Rising rates of vaccine exemptions: problems with current policy and more promising remedies.
- Do Children Have Vaccination Rights?
- Ethicist: Why Jim Carrey is Wrong About Vaccines
- There is no other side to the vaccine debate
- Local Doctor Challenges Michele Bachmann’s Stance On HPV Vaccines
- Exempting schoolchildren from immunizations: States with few barriers had
highest rates of nonmedical exemptions Morality of influenza vaccine mandates.- Evidence-based decision making for vaccines: the need for an ethical foundation.
- The HPV Vaccine Controversy
- Vaccination refusal: ethics, individual rights, and the common good
- Ethics of vaccination programs
- The case for vaccinating boys against human papillomavirus.
- A proposed ethical framework for vaccine mandates: competing values and the case of HPV.
- Morality in a time of Ebola
- Eager to Opine on the Toughest Calls in Medical Ethics
- Ethics of Vaccinations Project
- Book – Vaccination Ethics and Policy
- Please Don’t Take Prescription Drug Advice from Kim Kardashian