COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination: Legal and Bioethical Controversies

The imposition of compulsory health treatments has always been a subject of animated legal and bioethical debate. What is at stake are two opposing interests that are in their own way protected by international treaties and constitutional provisions: the right to individual self-determination and th...

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Autores principales: Gibelli, Filippo, Ricci, Giovanna, Sirignano, Ascanio, De Leo, Domenico
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8847256/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35187005
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.821522
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author Gibelli, Filippo
Ricci, Giovanna
Sirignano, Ascanio
De Leo, Domenico
author_facet Gibelli, Filippo
Ricci, Giovanna
Sirignano, Ascanio
De Leo, Domenico
author_sort Gibelli, Filippo
collection PubMed
description The imposition of compulsory health treatments has always been a subject of animated legal and bioethical debate. What is at stake are two opposing interests that are in their own way protected by international treaties and constitutional provisions: the right to individual self-determination and the duty to defend and preserve collective safety. The global health crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic has placed the issue of the legitimacy of imposing compulsory vaccination at the center of the multifaceted debate on pandemic health policies. Indonesia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Federated States of Micronesia are currently the only four countries in the world where the COVID-19 vaccine is mandatory for all citizens. Italy was the first country in the European Union to introduce this obligation, effective from 8 January 2022 by virtue of the decree-law approved on 5 January 2022, which imposed vaccination compulsory for everyone over the age of 50. Similar paths have been undertaken by Greece and Austria, where the obligation will start respectively on 16 January 2022 (for citizens aged over 60) and 1 February 2022 (for citizens of all ages). However, in many civilized countries, “selective” forms of compulsory vaccination, i.e., aimed at specific categories of individuals, especially healthcare professionals, are already provided for. The present work aims to offer a concise and as much as possible exhaustive overview of the main ethical and legal issues related to compulsory COVID-19 vaccination, with reference to both the Italian and the international context, mainly European.
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spelling pubmed-88472562022-02-17 COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination: Legal and Bioethical Controversies Gibelli, Filippo Ricci, Giovanna Sirignano, Ascanio De Leo, Domenico Front Med (Lausanne) Medicine The imposition of compulsory health treatments has always been a subject of animated legal and bioethical debate. What is at stake are two opposing interests that are in their own way protected by international treaties and constitutional provisions: the right to individual self-determination and the duty to defend and preserve collective safety. The global health crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic has placed the issue of the legitimacy of imposing compulsory vaccination at the center of the multifaceted debate on pandemic health policies. Indonesia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Federated States of Micronesia are currently the only four countries in the world where the COVID-19 vaccine is mandatory for all citizens. Italy was the first country in the European Union to introduce this obligation, effective from 8 January 2022 by virtue of the decree-law approved on 5 January 2022, which imposed vaccination compulsory for everyone over the age of 50. Similar paths have been undertaken by Greece and Austria, where the obligation will start respectively on 16 January 2022 (for citizens aged over 60) and 1 February 2022 (for citizens of all ages). However, in many civilized countries, “selective” forms of compulsory vaccination, i.e., aimed at specific categories of individuals, especially healthcare professionals, are already provided for. The present work aims to offer a concise and as much as possible exhaustive overview of the main ethical and legal issues related to compulsory COVID-19 vaccination, with reference to both the Italian and the international context, mainly European. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8847256/ /pubmed/35187005 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.821522 Text en Copyright © 2022 Gibelli, Ricci, Sirignano and De Leo. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Medicine
Gibelli, Filippo
Ricci, Giovanna
Sirignano, Ascanio
De Leo, Domenico
COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination: Legal and Bioethical Controversies
title COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination: Legal and Bioethical Controversies
title_full COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination: Legal and Bioethical Controversies
title_fullStr COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination: Legal and Bioethical Controversies
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination: Legal and Bioethical Controversies
title_short COVID-19 Compulsory Vaccination: Legal and Bioethical Controversies
title_sort covid-19 compulsory vaccination: legal and bioethical controversies
topic Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8847256/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35187005
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.821522
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