Question:
Write an essay on the “Common Good and No Jab No Pay Policy”.
The notion of common good had originated from the writings of Plato, Cicero and Aristotle. The concept of common good have surfaced its origin in the business, social responsibilities, in discussions related to education investment, environmental pollution, poverty and crime. Common good is mainly understood as the actions, which are taken for the benefit of everyone and not just for the self interest of few people. The concept of common good has its roots in the religious scriptures also. The Catholic religion states that the conditions, which are collectively called as the common good that, allow people to have complete and equal access to everything in the social world.
In the political and social philosophy, the notion of common good is always considered as an important element. This concept connects it with the firms and business, where the common good is very important for the interest of all. According to Argandona, the theory of common good is very beneficial for the ethical decision making and provides the basis for the ethical stakeholder theory. The theory suggested by Argandona is not related to firms and organizations particularly, but it is related to the human community, which is considered as the company. The paper will discuss the theory of common good in relation to stakeholder theory (Freeman, et al, 2010).
The notion of common good has an important place in political and social understanding of studies from Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and in Catholic Social Teaching. The Aristotle’s view towards common good, states that common good is related to wide variety of the good actions, which are required for the people in an organization. John Rawls, who is the expert of ethical studies, presented the new idea of common good as the significant conditions that provide equal advantage to everyone in the society.
The process of immunization is considered as most important, in order to fight diseases. The process of immunization also has a long history (Australian Government Department of Health, 2015). In order to save children from many deadly diseases, parents take their children for vaccination. Immunization through different vaccines, save many children every year from death. Despite of many scientific proofs that vaccinations are very helpful and important; many misconceptions and myths surround the process of vaccinations. The Australian Government has started a new policy with the name “No Jab No Pay”. This policy states that the parents, whose children have received all the vaccinations recognized by the government, will be able to receive benefits of “Child Care Benefit, the Child Care Rebate and the Family Tax Benefit Part A end of year supplement” (Australian Government Department of Health, 2015).
For this policy, parents have different perspective. They refuse to get done the vaccinations, as they believe that it will harm their children. The side effects of the vaccination are higher than the risk associated with not getting immunized. The presence of mercury in the vaccines is also harmful, for which parents want to avoid vaccines for their children (Salathé, 2015). Some parents are even objecting the vaccines on the basis of religious concepts. This is particularly for the vaccines, which created from the cells of the aborted fetuses. Famous cartoonist Michael Leunig created a cartoon, which was against the no jab and no pay policy. He received many negative feedbacks for this cartoon (Choahan, 2015). But, the cartoonist defended himself by saying that this cartoon is just to stand against fascism.
According to the Federal government, immunization is very important and it is the most important intervention for the public health, which is applied in the last two hundred years. It is a significant and important way to save the population from many diseases and serious health conditions. Aim of the Government is to save the herd community from the risks of diseases (Salathé, 2015). For this purpose, the policy of No Jab, No Pay is introduced by the government so that they can boost rate of immunization in Australia. The Government has linked the take benefits and other financial aids with this policy, so that parents may vaccinate their children more and more (Rollins, 2015). Earlier, parents were allowed to avoid vaccinations on the name of religion, but now in the new policy the only exclusion allowed is based on the medical reasons (Australian Government Department of Health, 2015).
According to the perspective of this kind of group, the parents must have the right to make a choice about the vaccination of their children. They have the right to choose that whether their children should receive vaccination or not. Anti vaccination group also claims that those parents, who have such perspective against vaccines, comes from highly educated background and from more flourished families (Balakumar, 2014).
This group has a totally different perspective from that of Government. The parents associated with this group are standing against the new No Jab and No Pay policy. This group is working since more than 20 years and many Australian parents are linked with this group. But, the moral and ethical question related to this group is that what concrete basis this group has to refuse vaccination of their children. Also, it is questionable that these parents have any kind of social responsibility. Some of them believe that government could take other ways to boost immunization instead of forcing it (Macartney, 2015).
Pro-vaccination are the groups, which stand against the Anti-vaccination groups. These groups are run by the parents, whose children fall ill by contracting diseases from the unvaccinated children. These groups work through social media, to increase the awareness and draw attention towards the threats associated with unvaccinated children create for the whole society (Stein, 2016). The high risks are associated with the unvaccinated children; mostly the young babies are at higher risk. The members of the pro-vaccination group promote the idea that “vaccination is not a personal choice, it’s a social responsibility” (Balakumar, 2014). The common good is related to the social responsibility as well. The ethical stakeholder theory is helpful in understanding the common good (Northern Rivers Vaccination Supporters, 2016).
The principles of human flourishing are connected to the idea of common good. This is particularly related to the well being of the entire human community. Human flourishing principles are associated with dignity, rights, value and duties. The humans suggest social bonding and social relation (Fredrickson, 2006). The common good associated with human flourishing states that humans are the social being, and for the common good, and every individual should contribute towards the common purpose. The humans must share the responsibilities for the benefits of the whole society. The complete human race must be encircled within the set of particular duties, rights and values. The minimum standards should be set to support human life in the society (Fredrickson, 2006).
Many principles are associated with the common Good theory. The major themes of these principles are associated with Catholic Social Teaching (CST). These teaching of human flourishing are prepared by the documents of different bishops, priests and pops (Lee, & Holland, 1993). The Common Good explained according to Catholic Social Teaching states, that with every passing day the human interdependence is growing faster all over the world, thus the common good, which is the total conditions that allows every individual to have fulfillment in their lives is very important to be applied. The idea of common good is growing complex everyday and it also involves the duties and rights of every individual. It is the duty of the entire human race. Every social group must take the responsibility of providing the rights and fulfilling the needs of the people, who require it. The common welfare of every human should be considered under common good.
The inherent principle of the humans is belief, which provides basis for the Catholic Social Teaching. The ethical vision of the society is dependent on understanding the dignity of the complete human race and sacred life of the humans. The ground of the principle is based on the notion that “people are made in the image of the God” (Fredrickson, 2006). The dignity of people is not reduced by economic status, ethnicity, race, age capability or any other such factors (Fredrickson, 2006). Human dignity is related to the concept that every human is equal and has equal value. In the case of the NO Jab, No Pay policy, Government should understand that every citizen of the country is equal and have equal dignity. The parents, who are against vaccination, should understand that in front of Government every citizen is equal; policies are made for the Common Good and not for the self interest of the policy makers.
The moral test of the community or the society is conducted by analyzing that how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor in the country requires the urgent attention of equality and dignity. They require preferences in case of policies and benefits. The public policy decisions should be looked in term of how the policy is benefiting the poor of the society. The ‘preferential option for the poor’ must not be considered as a slogan, which favors one group of the society from the other. But, it states that powerlessness and deficiency of the poor is affecting the whole society. To achieve common good, the efforts should be made to uplift the poor of the society. The healthy society can be attained only if all the members give special attention towards those, who require special needs. The No Jab No Pay policy made by the Australian Government is for achieving the common Good. It is to benefit the poor and unprivileged people in the society. The people standing against this policy should understand that poor people require more medical attention. Their children are vulnerable to various deadly and incurable diseases, for which vaccines are very important (Richards, 2013).
All the religious values promote that peace is the most significant concept of the human life. Peace does not mean that there is no war, but it is the mutual respect, love and confidence in each other. Peace in people of society, or nation is also related to the trust. Promotion of Peace also involves the association and bonding of the agreements (Massaro, 2015). There is also a close connection between justice and peace. If justice prevails in the society; it will promote peace. Peace is also the beginning of justice, and it is dependent on the equal rights among people. Common good can be flourished more in the society, which maintains peace. In case of No Jab No Pay policy, the people against this policy must understand that this policy is to provide equal rights to every person. By maintaining peace, the goal of common good can be easily achieved (Fredrickson, 2006).
Conclusion
All humans are one big family, who are interdependent on each other. Every religion teaches equality and harmony, for the common good. TO achieve common good, one must understand that what principles are required to make human kind flourish. The concept of common good was mainly found in the studies of Plato, and Aristotle. The theory of common good given by Argandona, relates it with the stakeholders theory. According to him theory of common good is related to political and social ethics. In order to achieve ethical decision in politics and social grounds, it is important to make decisions according to the benefit of the stakeholders. The paper reviews the Australian policy of “No Jab, No Pay”. This policy states that, the parents of those children who have received all vaccinations will receive financial aids and tax benefits (Morrison, 2015). Different stakeholders associated with it have different views. The people against the process of vaccination states that, vaccinations are not important, and people who have not received vaccinations are more educated.
The people in favor of vaccination state that unvaccinated children are the great risk for the young babies. When young babies come in contact with unvaccinated children, they easily get in contact with deadly diseases. Government also states that vaccinations are important for children for healthy living. Thus, the policy is for the common good and human flourishing principles should be applied to display the common good to different stakeholders. The common goals must be perused jointly to promote common good.
References
Australian Government Department of Health. (2015, June, 2nd). “Immunise Australia Program:
Frequently Asked Questions”. Reterived From:
Australian Government Department of Health. (2015, April 20). About the Program. Immunise Australia Program.
Balakumar A. (2014, October 28). “Look at this: the devastating effect of anti-vaxxers on the
Choahan N. (2015). “Michael Leunig defends ‘fascist epiphany’ vaccination cartoon,” The Age,
Danchin M. and Nolan T. (2014). “A positive approach to parents with concerns about
vaccination for the family physician,” Australian Family Physician, 43: 10: 690.
Immunising your children. (2016, May 17). Australian Government. Department of Human
Lee, V. E., & Holland, P. B. (1993). Catholic schools and the common good. Harvard University
Kristine Macartney. (2015, Feb 27). “Forget ‘no jab, no pay’ schemes, there are better ways to
boost vaccination,” The Conversation.
Massaro, T. (2015). Living justice: Catholic social teaching in action. Rowman & Littlefield.
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