Moral Responsibility of State in Case of Vaccine Health Impairment

Abstract

Health is considered a fundamental human right that also has moral implication as pathological health conditions could bring comparative disadvantages among people and change their life opportunity range. Vaccination is one of the health care measures that state usually prescribes as mandatory in order to protect public health. However, vaccines can have side effects and cause, although in rare cases, health impairment that negatively effects on life opportunities. In such cases, the question is on whom lies the burden of responsibility for health impairment. In this paper, author expresses the view that it is not clear whether we can justifiably assign moral responsibility in case of vaccine health infringement to state that, in the first place, prescribes to its citizens’ obligation regarding vaccination. In order to examine whether we can assign the burden of responsibility to state in the case of mandatory vaccination, we analyse moral agency, causal relevancy and opportunity of avoiding as presumptions of moral responsibility.