Privilege and Parents’ Choice to Refuse Pediatric Vaccines

Bibliographic Data

ID17814475
AuthorsNicole Fice (corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume19
Issue1
Pages78-100
Publication date2026-04-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1937-4577 • E-ISSN: 1937-4585
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/ijfab-2024-0017
OpenAlexW7160064666
LanguageEN
References cited21

In research on pediatric vaccine refusal that occurred in the mid-2010s, an interesting theme emerged—that of the relative privilege of some parents who delay or refuse vaccines. However, privilege is not clearly defined. The author points to accounts of privilege in feminist philosophy to fill this gap but argues that existing accounts are vague about what privilege confers. She offers some clarifications: privilege confers both tangible resources and options to do certain things or be a certain way to dominant social groups. The author then returns to the case of vaccine refusal to demonstrate the nature and value of this distinction in what privilege includes

Immune privilege · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare · Prenatal Screening and Diagnostics · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy