Resolved: Public health concerns justify compulsory immunization.

LD ONLY! Resolved: Public health concerns justify compulsory immunization. V: Governmental Legitimacy VC: Authoritative Sovereignty Public Health Concerns- reflection of a society's will Just- carrying out one's duty to one's station (defined by Plato) OBSV1: Public Health Concerns are valid. People don't like dealing with infectious disease many of which have compulsory immunizations today including Mumps, Measles, Rubella, Oral Polio, Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Hepatitis B. Protecting ourselves from such illnesses is in no way irrational, in fact the State's exercising its right and fulfilling its duty to protect the lives of its citizens. OBSV2: Since PHC's reflect society's will they're justifiable in acting. The public is concerned for there own health and well being therefore the State is justifiable in taking action that protects the people just like any law that can be justified. OBSV3: Stats are irrelevant The Resolution NEVER calls for action the debate is solely theoretical. If the State had to make immunizations compulsory it is justifiable in doing so because it has the right to. C1: State is Legitimate in acting. The State has complete Governmental Legitimacy to act over the people due to its Authoritative Sovereignty, and is justifiable in doing so since it is fulfilling its purpose of protecting its citizens. It not only has the obligation but the right to take the actions necessary to protect its citizens given to it when it was created. In 1328 the Bubonic Plague also known as the Black Death where nearly a third of the worlds population died had great effects on Europe as well as many other countries so they took justifiable action to protect its people, in this case with quarantines. Since the disease first started following Caravan routes then with the help of European shipping and accompanying rats the disease spread throughout the world. With such high mortality rates it was not uncommon for a whole town or city to become depopulated and since Trade Routes ensured the spread of the "Black Death" this greatly devastated international trade. Farming communities also took a large hit, when their owners were hit with the Plague the livestock and people perished. This decline of the farming communities resulted in food shortages. A major consequence of the disease was famine - and even more people perished. Surviving populations of villages and towns were forced to move or starve to death. In order to prevent the entire crumbling of its infrastructure Europe began quarantines to help limit the spread. So as we can see disease poses a large threat to the economic state of a Government so they were justifiable in doing so since they were fulfilling their obligation as the State to protect its citizens and had the right to do so. C2: Disease Damages education. Since in recent times various forms of influenza and disease have damaged the educational opportunities of children attending school and by in large society as a whole, not making immunizations compulsory causes' citizen's harms that the State must make an effort to prevent. Damaging a child's ability to attain an education subjects them to much potential harm however we'll talk about one large one, poverty (Every Child Counts, London): When one is subjected to poverty the harms are as follows: •No voice in policies or in the delivery of livestock services •Limited access to education, resulting in reduced literacy rates •Limited access to health services •Limited access to land and water, or insecure rights of access to these resources •Poor access to credit facilities, extension services and agricultural services •Premature birth, and or birth defects due to fact that poor women in effect have poor prenatal care •Limited or difficult access to markets •Low household incomes, related to generally high levels of unemployment or under-employment. Iskra Beleva- "The larger and longer the unemployment, the deeper and more complicated are the social and economic problems it causes in society. The existence of stable long-term unemployment extracts a segment out of the labour force and isolates it economically and socially. Long exemptions from labour life and labour environment lead to losses of professional qualification. For society this means a loss of economic and social gains and no return of investments made. Reintegration of unemployed into working life requires new investments. Moreover, unemployed people represent a vulnerable economic and social group. In their struggle to survive, they are inclined to join the shadow economy and to conduct criminal and violent behaviour. Many consequences of unemployment are manifest in psychological and behavioural deformations of personality." Long-term unemployment turns into psychological and behavioural deformations this is because people look for outlooks to survive whether or not they're legal. Lastly, crime which is quite possibly the most harmful George Winslow writes- "the reality is that crime is largely a product of poverty. Street crime is most rampant in poor neighborhoods, and crime rates rise and fall in proportion to how the national economy is doing". Well-paying jobs, concludes Winslow, are far more effective than police or prisons in reducing crime. It's the States duty to take action that protects the citizens from crime or to establish institutions that do thus far (police, military, etc) and from poverty as well. The State does not have the option of opting out of this obligation and duty as is it is purposed to fulfill. C3: Religious Groups do not surpass the State. An individual or group of individuals cannot prevent the State from fulfilling its duty in taking justifiable action to protect its citizens solely on the objection of a religious belief or ideal. The more difficult problem is religious or cultural groups that oppose immunizations. These groups tend to cluster, reducing the effective immunization level in their neighborhoods, schools, and churches. In addition to endangering their own children, such groups pose a substantial risk to the larger community. By providing a reservoir of infection, a cluster of unimmunized persons can defeat the general herd immunity of a community. As these infected persons mix with members of the larger community, they will expose those who are susceptible to contagion. The law does not state this to be an issue of freedom of religion. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts,207 held that an individual could not refuse smallpox vaccination: "We are not prepared to hold that a minority, residing or remaining in any city or town where smallpox is prevalent, and enjoying the general protection afforded by an organized local government, may thus defy the will of its constituted authorities, acting in good faith for all, under the legislative sanction of the State" (p. 37). In the later case of Prince v. Massachusetts,208 the U.S. Supreme Court spoke directly to the issue of religious objections to vaccination: But the family itself is not beyond regulation in the public interest, as against a claim of religious liberty. And neither rights of religion nor rights of parenthood are beyond limitation. Acting to guard the general interest in youth's well being, the state as parens patriae may restrict the parent's control by requiring school attendance, regulating or prohibiting the child's labor and in many other ways. Its authority is not nullified merely because the parent grounds his claim to control the child's course of conduct on religion or conscience. Thus, he cannot claim freedom from compulsory vaccination for the child more than for himself on religious grounds. The right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill health or death. No states exempt religious groups from child abuse laws or other criminal laws intended t