A Scalar Approach to Vaccination Ethics

The Journal of Ethics 28 (1):145-169 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Should people get vaccinated for the sake of others? What could ground—and limit—the normative claim that people ought to do so? In this paper, we propose a reasons-based consequentialist account of vaccination for the benefit of others. We outline eight harm-based and probabilistic factors that, we argue, give people moral reasons to get vaccinated. Instead of understanding other-directed vaccination in terms of binary moral duties (i.e., where people either have or do not have a moral duty to get vaccinated), we develop a scalar approach according to which people can have stronger or weaker moral reasons to get vaccinated in view of the moral good of vaccination. One advantage of our approach is that it can capture why a person might have strong moral reasons to get vaccinated with Vaccine A, but only weak moral reasons to get vaccinated with Vaccine B. We discuss theoretical strengths of our approach and provide a case study of vaccination against COVID-19 to demonstrate its practical significance.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

On the Concept and Ethics of Vaccination for the Sake of Others.Steven R. Kraaijeveld - 2023 - Dissertation, Wageningen University and Research
Zur Pflicht, sich gegen Covid-19 impfen zu lassen.Peter Schaber - 2021 - Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie 107 (1):42-51.
COVID-19 Vaccines and the Virtues.Konrad V. Boyneburgk & Francesca Bellazzi - 2022 - Public Health Ethics 15 (3):209-219.

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-09-20

Downloads
432 (#67,785)

6 months
93 (#66,431)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

References found in this work

Reasons and the Good.Roger Crisp - 2006 - Oxford, GB: Clarendon Press.
The Ethics of Vaccination.Alberto Giubilini - 2019 - Cham: Springer Verlag.
What’s Wrong with Joyguzzling?Ewan Kingston & Walter Sinnott-Armstrong - 2018 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (1):169-186.
Moral Responsibility.Matthew Talbert - 2019 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Freedom and Resentment and Other Essays.P. F. Strawson - 1968 - Philosophy and Rhetoric 9 (3):185-188.

View all 39 references / Add more references