Professor Melessa Henderson
Rhetoric and Research
22 October 2012
Vaccines
Vaccinations are becoming more prominent in the world of medicine today. The topic has become debatable as well as controversial. While vaccine campaigns are on the rise, we are entering a new millennium with growing concern from large numbers of parents and professionals in the medical field. When compared with the relative statistics of disease in our country, we then think about the safety of vaccinations with a more open viewpoint. Vaccinations can be our lifelong friend, or a lifelong enemy. Perhaps there can be no topic with a greater argument in the medical field, than that of childhood vaccinations. Vaccines have an important part in the prevention of certain diseases. Vaccine proponents are in full belief that without the help of vaccines we would be susceptible to many rampant diseases and epidemics. A graduate from Harvard University and a practicing physician obtaining a medical degree from New York University, Doctor Richard Moskowitz says, “There is a widespread agreement that the time period since the common vaccines were introduced has seen a remarkable decline in the incidence and severity of corresponding natural infections.” Doctors all around are beginning to see this effect take place as a result of various vaccines. Diseases and epidemics have become so common among children today that doctors in the medical field are called to great action. It is starting to become a natural question of every parent today. It is that of childhood vaccinations, which is expected that every parent who has children will have them vaccinated. Many parents like to argue that they have the right to choice and freedom. The argument towards personal freedom and choice is adjacent to public safety. Each individual is given a right to choose whether or not to vaccinate their children, but that individual does not have the freedom to be hazardous towards
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