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. 2024 Mar;27(1):81-91.
doi: 10.1007/s11019-023-10186-4. Epub 2024 Jan 5.

The duty of care and the right to be cared for: is there a duty to treat the unvaccinated?

Zohar Lederman  1 , Shalom Corcos  2
Affiliations

The duty of care and the right to be cared for: is there a duty to treat the unvaccinated?

Zohar Lederman et al. Med Health Care Philos. 2024 Mar.

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy or refusal has been one of the major obstacles to herd immunity against Covid-19 in high-income countries and one of the causes for the emergence of variants. The refusal of people who are eligible for vaccination to receive vaccination creates an ethical dilemma between the duty of healthcare professionals (HCPs) to care for patients and their right to be taken care of. This paper argues for an extended social contract between patients and society wherein vaccination against Covid-19 is conceived as essential for the protection of the right of healthcare providers to be taken care of. Thus, a duty of care is only valid when those who can receive vaccination actually receive it. Whenever that is not the case, the continuing functioning of HCPs can only be perceived as supererogatory and not obligatory.

Keywords: Duty of care; Right to be cared for; Supererogatory.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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