ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses whether and how a state may exempt people from coercive vaccination laws. Vaccine exemption policies are unlikely to go away any time soon. So, even if nonmedical exemptions are not required by liberal justice, concern for conscience, or pragmatic considerations, everyone ought to reflect on how to best run nonmedical exemption programs. Medical exemptions should be relatively non-controversial. The interesting questions are about nonmedical exemptions. Exemption policies to general laws may seem to occupy an unstable middle ground, because the considerations that count in favor of a general law also count in favor of universal compliance with the law. Exempting people from coercive vaccine laws may serve broader social and political purposes. Parents in twenty-nine of the states in the United States may receive exemptions only if they object for religious reasons. Prioritizing exemptions for people who object for moral reasons may be morally defensible.
