Cent Eur J Public Health 2009, 17(4):183-186 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3564

Ethical Evaluation of Compulsory Measles Immunisation as a Benchmark for Good Health Management in the European Union

Peter Schröder-Bäck1, Helmut Brand1, Ixhel Escamilla7, John K. Davies2, Caroline Hall2, Kieran Hickey3, Eleni Jelastopulu4, Reli Mechtler5, Jaroslav Volf6
1 Department of International Health, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
2 International Health Development Research Centre, Faculty of Health and Social Science, University of Brighton, UK
3 Health Service Executive, Dublin, Ireland
4 Laboratory of Public Health, University of Patras, Greece
5 Department of Health System Research, University of Linz, Austria
6 Permanent Mission of Czech Republic, Geneva
7 Department of Epidemiology and International Public Health, School of Public Health Bielefeld University, Germany

The results of the study Benchmarking Regional Health Management II suggest that compulsory measles immunisation is a good practice in public health management. Yet, the potential achievement of the desired health outcome alone is not a sufficient reason to make the immunisation obligatory. Rather, compulsory measles immunisation is a morally challenging measure. In this article, compulsory measles immunisation is critically evaluated from a public health ethics point of view. For this evaluation, a set of ethical criteria is proposed: respect for autonomy, health maximisation, efficiency, proportionality and social justice. The authors suggest it should not be taken for granted that compulsory measles immunisation should be championed, rather, health policy makers in the European Union should try to raise immunisation rates with non-compulsory means.

Keywords: measles, immunisation, compulsion, ethics, European Union

Received: May 25, 2009; Revised: December 1, 2008; Accepted: July 2, 2009; Published: December 1, 2009  Show citation

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Schröder-Bäck P, Brand H, Escamilla I, Davies JK, Hall C, Hickey K, et al.. Ethical Evaluation of Compulsory Measles Immunisation as a Benchmark for Good Health Management in the European Union. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2009;17(4):183-186. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a3564. PubMed PMID: 20377045.
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