Bioethical aspects of children's vaccination in Moldova

Abstract

Introduction. Vaccination is a current topic of bioethical approach. Despite some notable successes achieved by mass immunization, vaccination remains an intensely discussed topic, for various reasons, predominantly in the media. Aim of the study. To identify the essential moments of the vaccination process of children in Moldova and to highlight the importance of the doctor-parent relationship. Materials and methods. There were used scientific reference publications, clinical protocols, various mass-media reports on vaccination, as well as other sources available on internet. There were studied results of a questionnaire applied on a lot of 40 respondents (parents) from rural and urban areas with the age between 21-45 years. Results. The research conducted on 40 parents (mothers and fathers) illustrates the following positions regarding vaccination: 30% complain about weak information correlations in the doctor-patient-parent relationships; 70% recognize the application of vaccination of children in the context of their vulnerability; 85% identify certain fears of somatic integrity regarding the effect of applying organized immunization; and more than 55% have no fear accepting collective integration with an unvaccinated child. The main characteristic trait attributed to the child is the vulnerability, children being the first ones included in the risk group. The principle of vulnerability highlights the fragility and harmlessness of the growing organism in the event of a possible virotic or microbial infection. It emphasizes the problem of violation of fundamental rights and freedoms of both the child and adults: vaccination becomes mandatory in its form, being imposed as a requirement to admit the child in different institutions (like schools and kindergartens). Conclusions. (1) Vaccination is a particular subject of current medical-bioethical analysis. (2) The basic issues of the bioethical analysis of the vaccination refer to therapeutic integrity, the vulnerability of the children, the doctor-parent relations, freedom, and the responsibility. (3) The intransigence towards vaccination is mainly due to the deficiencies of medical management. (4) The bioethical approach of the vaccination problems contains an important potential to optimize the immunization process through immunization.