In human history, infectious diseases and epidemic outbreaks have been the main causes of death. To limit the spread of an infectious disease, it is necessary to achieve collective immunity, which today, thanks to modern medicine, can be achieved more quickly by vaccination. Vaccination protects the individual, but its primary goal is to ensure the health of the entire population, which requires compromising the human right to self-determination and the right to bodily autonomy. Thus, ethical questions arise about the relationship between individual interest, freedom, and the integrity and health of the population. However, since a broad vaccination campaign is necessary to achieve collective immunity, in certain countries, including Slovenia, the issue of mandatory vaccination (already established for certain diseases) is also raised. In this thesis, we will look at the ethical issue of vaccination and mandatory vaccination from the utilitarian point of view, according to which the just and moral action is the one that leads to the greatest amount of benefit for the greatest number of people.
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