Immunization Requirements

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Immunization Requirements

• Renee De Jesus

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California Immunization Law

• What is it ?

Whenever children are brought into group
settings, there is a potential for the spread of
infectious diseases. To prevent some of the most
serious infections, the California School
Immunization Law requires that children receive a
series of immunizations before entry to schools,
child care centers, or family child care homes.
In addition, the California School Immunization
Law requires schools, child care centers, and
family child care homes to enforce immunization
requirements, to maintain immunization records of
all children enrolled, and to submit reports to
the health department.
California Department of health Services and
Immunization handbook
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Moral Question ???

• Is it moral for children to be required to get
  immunization vaccinations in order to be able to
  attend a school, child care center, or family
  care home in California?

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Thesis

• Using John Stuart Mill, I argue that children
  ought to be required to get immunization
  vaccinations in order to be able to be admitted
  into a school or child care facility in
  California.

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Term to Know

• Immunization
• the process whereby a person is made immune or
  resistant to an infectious disease, typically by
  the administration of a vaccine. Vaccines
  stimulate the bodys own immune system to protect
  the person against subsequent infection or
  disease.
• Immunization is a proven tool for controlling
  and eliminating life threatening infectious
  diseases and is estimated to avert over 2 million
  deaths each year. It is one of the most
  cost-effective health investments, with proven
  strategies that make it accessible to even the
  most hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations. It
  has clearly defined target groups it can be
  delivered effectively through outreach
  activities and vaccination does not require any
  major lifestyle change.

World Health Organization, Immunization
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Requirements

• Immunization Record Card
• Blue Card
• Full dates
• Signature

California Immunization Handbook
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Vaccinations

• Chickenpox (Varicella)
• Polio DPT (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis)
• Measles
• Hepatitis B

http//www.scusd.edu/sfss/CA_Immun_Regmts.htm
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Los Angeles-Orange Immunization Network
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Los Angeles-Orange Immunization Network
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Exemptions

• Personal Beliefs
• California is one of a number of states that
  allows a personal beliefs, or philosophical,
• exemption to school/ child care immunization
  requirements. California
• law1 states that Immunization of a person shall
  not be required for admissionif
• the parent or guardianfilesa letter stating
  that the immunization
• is contrary to his or her beliefs. Any parent
  has the option to take the personal
• beliefs exemption at any time. If a parent
  takes an exemption, his or her child may be
  excluded
• if a case or an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable
  disease occurs in the school or
• child care facility.
• -Exemptions Information Sheet must be filled out
• Medical Exemption
• A temporary or permanent medical exemption to
  one or more of the immunizations
• may be granted under certain circumstances with
  a signed note from
• a physician. The note from the physician should
  be stapled to the students Blue Card.
• Temporary medical exemptions must be followed up
  with an extension of the
• deadline date or receipt of the needed vaccine
  doses when the temporary medical
• exemption expires.
• -Exemption Information Sheet

California Immunization Handbook
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Moral Concern

• Parents have many reasons vaccine safety issues,
  concerns about side effects, moral concerns about
  the use of fetal tissue in some vaccines, or the
  belief that natural immunity can be fostered.

(Wolfe, Acts of Faith).
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John Stuart Mill

• Happiness
• Pain vs. Pleasure
• that happiness is the only intrinsically
  desirable thing
• happiness is our only ultimate end it must
  rely on introspection and on careful and honest
  examination of our feelings and motives.

(Mill, Utilitarianism).
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Principle of Utility

• The principle of utility determines the
  rightness of acts by their effects on the total
  amount of happiness in the world
• Mill acknowledges that the principle of utility
  wont motivate people unless they happen to care
  about promoting the total happiness

utilitarianism requires us to redesign social
institutions to inculcate greater concern with
the total happiness
http//www.philosophy.umd.edu/Faculty/PGreenspan/C
rs/MILL.pdf
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Happiness Principle

• Greatest Happiness Pleasure
• Actions are right in proportion as they tend to
  promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce
  the reverse of happiness.
• with happiness understood roughly as
  pleasure and the absence of pain

(Keele, The Utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill).
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John Stuart Mill

• Pleasure and freedom from pain, are the only
  things desirable as ends.

The only freedom which deserves the name is that
of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long
as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs,
or impede their efforts to obtain it.
(Mill, Utilitarianism)
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Immanuel Kant

• Formulate the maxim
• in situations of sort A, I will do B.
• Universalize the maxim
• in situations of sort A, everyone will do B.
• Determine whether the universalized maxim could
  be a universal law

though our knowledge begins with experience, it
does not follow that it at all arises out of
experience.
(Ripple 2009 Syllabus, Kant)
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Mill vs. Kant

• Immanuel Kant
• Maxims
• Universal Law

• John Stuart Mill
• Pleasure over pain
• Greater good for all

(Mill vs. Kant, 2008-2009)
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Conclusion

• Requiring all children to be immunized will
  result in everyones ultimate end of happiness.
  The pleasure of just the mere thought of knowing
  that you are safe from disease and that you have
  reduced the risk of being diagnosed with a
  disease for yourself and for those around us
  outweighs any moral concern. And as individuals
  and human beings, we are obligated to live a
  life free from pain as much as possible.

• In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we
  read the complete spirit of the ethics of
  utility. To do as you would be done by, and to
  love your neighbor as yourself, constitute the
  ideal perfection of utilitarian morality
• (Mill, 1871, p.24).

(Mill, 1871, p.17).
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Reference

• California Immunization Handbook. July 2003.
  Immunization Branch California Department of
  Health Services. 4 Apr. 2009 lthttp//www.cdph.ca.g
  ov/programs/immunize/Documents/HandbookText.pdfgt.
• California Immunization Requirements. 18 Mar.
  2008. Sacramento City Unified School District. 4
  Apr. 2009 lthttp//www.scusd.edu/sfss/CA_Immun_Regm
  ts.htmgt.
• Immunization. 2009. World Health Organization. 4
  Apr. 2009 lthttp//www.who.int/topics/immunization/
  en/gt.
• Keele, Lisa. The Utilitarianism of John Stuart
  Mill Ethics and the Greatest Happiness Principle.
  11 Aug. 2008. 4 Apr. 2009 lthttp//philosophy.suite
  101.com/article.cfm/the_utilitarianism_of_john_stu
  art_millgt.
• John Stuart Mill Quotes. 2009. 24 Apr. 2009
  lthttp//www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_
  stuart_mill_2.htmlgt.
• MILL. 4 Apr. 2009 lthttp//www.philosophy.umd.edu/F
  aculty/PGreenspan/Crs/MILL.pdfgt.
• Mill, John S. Utalitarianism. 4 Apr. 2009
  lthttp//books.google.com/books?id9PE1LARQNV8Cdq
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• Ripple, Darrien. "Health Care Ethics 2009 Spring
  Syllabus."
• 2006. Los Angeles-Orange Immunization Network. 5
  Apr. 2009 lthttp//images.google.com/imgres?imgurl
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• Mill, J.S. (1871). Utilitarianism. London
  Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer.
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• Wolfe, Robert M., and Lisa K. Sharpe. Acts of
  Faith. 2003. The Park Ridge Center. 5 Apr. 2009
  lthttp//www.parkridgecenter.org/Page398.htmlgt.