Vaccines Are Not Associated With Autism, Research Paper Example

While it is important to ensure that individual rights are enforced, it is necessary to create a balance between these rights and public protection. Unfortunately, protection cannot be effective if every individual right is allowed. It is therefore necessary to ensure that all public protection actions are ethical and moral to ensure that individual rights can be maximized. Examples of this that have recently been called to the public’s attention is related to individual gun and vaccination rights. Removing guns from public use will prevent deaths, but limit the ability of citizens to use them for sport. Meanwhile, requiring vaccinations will protect others from getting preventable diseases, but eliminate the ability of parents to make this health decision for their children (Phua, 2013).

In order to balance the issues of individual rights and the public’s protection, it is necessary to adopt a utilitarian mentality. Decisions must be made in accordance to what will benefit the greatest number of individuals on either side of the issue. This is the only way that decisions can be truly uninformed by bias. Therefore, I will make choices in a manner that will allow the greatest number of people to benefit. For example, because the presence of guns in the country hurt more people by ending lives than they do by benefitting people by causing happiness through sport, I will be strict in enforcing gun laws. In addition, I will support the legislators who believe that vaccination should be required because failure to do so is directly responsible for death and despair, while there is loose evidence for the link between vaccinations and disease like autism (Taylor et al., 2014).

To balance the use of reward and punishment, I will attempt to issue the same amount of rewards as I do punishments to reinforce positive behavior and to remove negative behavior. An effective example of this is carried out by police officers in Israel, who provide individuals that do not jaywalk with a thank you message for doing the right thing. Individuals who do not follow the law will receive a fine (Kaye, 2012). The police forces in the United States would benefit from this practice. In addition, even for minor offenses, I would be sure to have a conversation with the individuals in a manner that will help them recognize what they did wrong before presenting a ticket or making an arrest.

It is important to never use immoral means to accomplish desirable ends. All police business should be conducted according to its predefined instructions, and confessions from criminals must also be made in this accordance. One example how I will do this in my career is that I will never use force unless force is first used against me and I need to use it to restrain an individual. In addition, I will ensure that all questioning is done using words instead of actions.

The Ethics of Care and Peacemaking Criminology is a code that law enforcement professionals should live by if they wish to truly make their neighborhoods safer. An unethical member of the police force is just as bad as the criminals on the streets. In order to ensure that the rehabilitation of criminals can occur and that innocent individuals are able to have a chance to defend themselves, it is necessary that police officers behave in a manner that benefits the public. Ultimately, the civilians should be put as a priority ahead of one’s self.

References

Kaye Y. (2012). Tourist tip #12 / Jaywalking. Haaretz. Retrieved from http://www.haaretz.com/travel-in-israel/tourist-tip-12-jaywalking-1.455719

Phua K. (2013). Ethical Dilemmas in Protecting Individual Rights Versus Public Protection in the Case of Infectious Diseases. Infect Dis, 6: 1–5.

Taylor LE, Swerdfeger AL, Eslick GD. (2014). Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies. Vaccine, 32(29): 3623–  3629.