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Hobbes Vaccination Required

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Vaccinations Required?
Should parents be allowed to choose whether their children are vaccinated? A high population of unvaccinated children on the West Coast has led to outbreaks of Whooping cough and the measles amongst children. Unfortunately, herding, the idea that as most or all people who are healthy enough to received vaccinations are vaccinated, then those who cannot be (usually due to age, illness, or other health conditions), are protected from getting sick because there is such a low number of people around them with the possibility of caring the unwanted illness. Herding does not work if the amount of people who are not vaccinated reaches higher numbers than those who are vaccinated. Lately there has been a lot of talk about …show more content…

Hobbes after seeing the abundance of fighting and violence the occurred in the late 16th and early 17th century, he decided that the source of all the problems in the world come from the Church and State (King). Therefore, he concluded that government must only exist to serve its most basic purposes. According to Hobbes, those purposes were to provide safety and happiness. Hobbes’ political theory has three key concepts to it. The first is without any sort of society or government the state of nature is war, where everyone is against everyone. Meaning that without rules or standards to live by people will always be conquering each other no matter how many people group together. The second key concept for Hobbes is that since the above is true then in order for people to achieve their ultimate goal of natural rights (safety and happiness) there must be a government. In addition, it is the government’s main goal to provide its people with a safe place to live where the citizens can pursuit happiness. Hobbes final key concept is that it is in the best interest of everyone to agree to contractually surrender certain rights in order to maintain the society’s (country’s) natural rights and liberties. In line with all of his three key concepts Hobbes believes that people should have the …show more content…

In fact one might argue that Hobbes might not even allow parents the to vaccinate their children at all. Hobbes’ main issue with vaccinations would be that there is .5-2 percent chance that the medication could cause a person harm. This is due to chemicals as such mercury and other dangerous substances used to preserve the vaccine. Since Hobbes believes that people should try to survive by any means necessary he would not be in favor of requiring children to be vaccinated. One could also argue that because Hobbes promoted the idea of having people contractually authorize any of their rights/liberties to be denied to them, he would have no problem banning everyone from vaccines due to limited but potential danger. On the other hand, Hobbes also has a deep belief in equality that would possibly persuade him to make vaccination an option instead of a

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