Should Childhood Immunisation be Compulsory?

Immunisation is offered to all age groups in the UK, but is mainly given to infants and school age children. Such immunisation is not compulsory, in contrast to other countries, such as the United States. The generally high level of immunisation in the UK¹ can be affected by public perception of the risk of side-effects.² This chapter discusses whether compulsory vaccination would be acceptable by considering individual cases where parents have failed to give consent or have explicitly refused consent for their children to be immunised. In particular, the rights are considered of: parents to rear their children according to their own standards, the child to receive health care and the community to be protected from vaccine-preventable infectious disease. The conclusion of the chapter is that compulsory vaccination cannot, with few exceptions, be justified in the UK, in view of the high levels of population immunity which currently exist.