Vaccine refusal in cancer patients at the French hospital: a normative re-analysis through a 'neopotterian theory of global bioethics'.

Abstract

Two normative studies in empirical bioethics on the bio-ethical issues associated with the refusal of cancer patients to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or flu at the hospital, in France, applying a 'neopotterian theory of global bioethics', have been published, respectively in 2022 and 2023. Since then, substancial progress in this theory have also been published, in 2024. The publication formalizes why and, above all, how global bioethics should integrate 'moral pluralism'. Based on these advances, we performed a normative re-analysis of the secondary information extracted from the two empirical bioethics' publications. At the end of the day, the solutions are now more explicitly discerned, which are different forms of indirect obligation for vaccination - to be understood as a more or less strong incentive to vaccinate rather than a legally formalized obligation. These solutions could have an appreciable relevance in mainland France, less in French overseas territories, even in other countries.