VaccineEthics.org - The Ethical Challenges of Vaccines

Vaccines are credited with having saved more lives than any medical treatment ever developed. Their continued success depends on the thoughtful consideration of the many ethical questions related to their development, regulation, and use

Announcements

Additional Content Now Available
A variety of new materials are now available on VaccineEthics.org. Several new Issue Briefs have been added, examining topics such as risk and benefit in vaccine policy, bioterrorism vaccines, the vaccine industry, and more. A new primary-source based curriculum unit is also available, examining the history of the Salk polio vaccine through documents from the Eisenhower presidential library. Finally, our bibliography has been updated with over 150 new references.

Ethics Chapter Published in 5th Edition of "Vaccines"
VaccineEthics.org staff from the Penn Center for Bioethics have contributed a chapter titled "Ethics" in the newly released 5th edition of Vaccines (Plotkin, Orenstein, and Offit, eds.), the internationally-respected reference text. The chapter on ethics - new to the 5th edition - examines the spectrum of ethical issues throughout the vaccine life-cycle and issues unique to vaccination in select populations or for specific disease targets.

Announcements Archive


	Latest news from blog.vaccineethics.org Swine flu and the limited role of vaccines in initial outbreak response The unfolding swine flu outbreak has raised considerable interest in the potential development of a vaccine against the virus. A story in yesterday's New York Times reminded us that a "Swine Flu Vaccine May Be Months Away, Experts Say," something that has long been known among public health officials considering the role of vaccines in response to a pandemic. (This is the reason for the funding, developme... [More] Court rejects alleged link between vaccines and autism Today's decisions by the Omnibus Autism Proceeding have received widespread media coverage. The three decisions -- available here -- total over 650 pages. Together they reject unequivocally the claim that MMR vaccines, individually or in tandem with thimerosal, could plausibly cause autism. Barring possible appeals, the decisions bring an end to a two-year process including 5,000 pages of transcripts, 70... [More]