Compulsory vaccination is one of the specific measures that the legislator provides for the prevention and control of contagious diseases. The purpose of compulsory vaccination is to achieve herd immunity that protects society against infectious diseases, primarily to those individuals who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. Vaccination is an invasive medical procedure made to a healthy human body. Because vaccination can have adverse effects for the injected person, more and more parents oppose the compulsory vaccination system. Parents with this belief, despite the vaccination being compulsory, do not vaccinate their children. Because of this behaviour, the number of children being vaccinated has started to decrease, which is leading to decrease the general vaccination coverage level in Slovenia. The fall of the vaccination coverage represents a serious threat to the achievement of herd immunity. Due to the increasing number of unvaccinated people, contagious diseases that have already been eradicated have started to reappear in Europe.
In accordance with the Contagious Diseases Act, there is a compulsory vaccination act for all children to be vaccinated against nine different contagious diseases in Slovenia. The constitutionality and legality of the statutory regulation of compulsory vaccination has already been judged by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia. Opponents of compulsory vaccination emphasize that compulsory vaccination is contrary to constitutionally protected rights. In its decision, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia recognized vaccination as a legitimate measure to achieve herd immunity, which is in public interest of society. It is important to emphasize that the court has defined that vaccination represents one of the types of forced treatments. Although vaccination in Slovenia is compulsory, the state does not have effective mechanisms to force parents into vaccination of their children. The main obstacle is the fact that parents must express at least some non-objection with the vaccination of their children. Thus, in the concept of compulsory vaccination, questions that arise are as whether compulsory vaccination can indeed be regarded as force treatment and whether vaccination can even be considered as a treatment. My research has shown that vaccination cannot be considered as a treatment, and therefore neither as forced treatment.
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