Description

TOPIC 2: REQUIRING VACCINES ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES As colleges and universities look forward to getting back to normal, should they require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for all members of the university community (faculty, staff, and students) who can be safely vaccinated? If not, what policy should they adopt to promote and protect the public health? How would you policy impact vulnerable populations? Make sure that you offer a moral argument in favor of your recommendation and evaluate the policy using the principles of biomedical ethics.   Note: The Supreme Court held in Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905) that states can require vaccination, even when there is a religious objection. In other words, individuals do not have a constitutional right to refuse vaccinations for non-medical reasons. POLICY PAPER DESCRIPTION AND STRUCTURE Description of the project: Imagine that you are a junior staffer on the newly formed Presidential Commission on Bioethical Policy. The Commission is tasked with presenting policy recommendations on a number of different issues. Your job is to select one of the topics the committee is currently considering and write a policy position paper to present to the chair of the Committee. If you convince the chair with the merits of your argument and analysis, the chair will then take our policy recommendation to the President. POLICY PAPER REQUIRED STRUCTURE: Introduction – In this section, you should briefly introduce the problem that you are addressing in the paper. You should also include a precise statement of the policy that you will be defending/arguing for in the paper; this is your thesis statement. The Policy – In this section, you will provide a full explication of the policy position that you are defending/arguing for in the paper. You should include your main argument for the policy in this section as well. Why is this the best solution to the problem? What are the reasons in support of your position. Evaluation of the Proposed Policy – In this section, you will evaluate your policy proposal using the five principles of biomedical ethics. In what ways does the policy meet the requirements of the principles of biomedical ethics? Are there any ways in which the policy fails to the meet the requirements of the principles? What might an opponent of your policy say? What is your response to these potential objections? Conclusion – In the conclusion, you will restate your main thesis. Then you will use the conclusion to tie up loose ends. For example, you might briefly consider the implications of the implementation of the policy in a broader legal or social context. The body of the draft paper must be at least 2,000 and no more than 2,800 words in length. This excludes headings, the works cited, references, and any footnotes or endnotes. Standard 10 to 12 point font, standard 1” margins