Q: I am a teacher. I have friends who refuse to vaccinate their children for fear of supposed side effects. Some have talked about getting faked doctors’ forms that say their children have been vaccinated so they can attend public school. As someone legally and morally charged with the safety of children, I plan to report them to their respective school districts if they do so. Isn’t this my duty?
– Anonymous, San Francisco
A: Reporting these counterfeits is something you may do but not something you must do. Similarly, you have a professional obligation to reproach a student in your own class who hands you a phony-baloney absence note. (“Please excuse me … I mean my son … for missing yesterday’s quiz. I was – darn it – he was feeling icky.”) But you need not scour the city for bogus notes.
You would have a duty to report those unvaccinated children who pose an imminent health threat, but that is not the case here, as long as their numbers are low. Dr. Serena Yoon says: “Of course, it’s better to vaccinate everyone, but technically, you don’t have to vaccinate everyone to prevent disease.” If most students are vaccinated, the school population is protected.
This is not to defend the deceitful parents. They are contemplating the obvious ethical transgression of filing false documents and, equally dubious, are being alarmists. While vaccination is not without risk, the consensus within the medical establishment is that the far greater risk is to leave children unvaccinated. It further discredits these parents that they propose to become free riders, reaping the benefits of vaccination but letting everyone else’s kids bear the (admittedly slight) risk.
What’s more, these folks have executed the rare triple play of being deceitful, alarmist and boneheaded: California will waive the immunization requirement if a parent is convinced it is harmful or contrary to his beliefs.
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Q: I attended a weekend Jewish personal-growth workshop spread out over several floors of an inner-city high-rise conference center. The observant Jews among us could not use the elevators on the Sabbath. Nor could they use the stairs: Doors from the stairwells to each floor were locked, a policy that building management refused to modify, citing security concerns. Our solution was to prop open the stairwell doors and monitor them as best we could. Ethical?
– John Kador, Geneva, Ill.
A: Much depends on the meaning of “as best we could.” If you stationed someone at each door, to stand guard if it was propped open or to let someone in if it was kept locked, you would have broken your agreement with those who rented you the space, but you also would have addressed their essential concerns.
If, however, you simply threw open the doors and hoped for the best, then you acted badly. Why place a lower value on my safety than on someone else’s religious beliefs? (Not that I attended this workshop.) Had there been a burglary or worse – well, remember how the citizens of Troy came to regret their too casual approach to doorway security.
Sometimes the best way to solve an ethical problem is to avoid it. Organizers should have anticipated the needs of the observant Jews and found a more congenial venue or hired security guards to watch unlocked doors.
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