Virtue ethics and the United Kingdom (UK) Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS)

ABSTRACT

I contend that virtue ethics provides the best ethical justification for vaccination programmes, and associated payment schemes for vaccine damaged individuals (which have been adopted in twenty-four countries and one province). Virtue ethics justifies vaccination programmes, as they contribute to the common good, and associated payment schemes, as they demonstrate compassion, justice and prudence in response to virtuous vaccination decisions by citizens. I also argue that the virtues of maturity and prudence justify voluntary vaccinations. I utilise several virtues to analyse, and suggest reforms to, the United Kingdom’s (UK) Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS). I also compare the UK VDPS with the schemes that have been adopted in other states, in particular the Vaccine Injury Compensation Programme (VICP) which has been adopted within the United States (US).

KEYWORDS:

• Common good
• justice
• no-fault liability
• vaccine damage
• virtue ethics
• tort law

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Professor Emma Cave, Dr Richard Craven, Professor Sara Fovargue, Dr Arushi Garg, Professor Tsachi Keren-Paz, Professor Anna Kirkland, Professor Heidi Larson and Dr Stephanie Pywell for their helpful and thorough comments regarding earlier drafts/presentations of this paper. I am also grateful to Dr Daniel Franchini for providing me with copies of the judgments from the Italian cases cited within this paper. I would also like to thank the editors and the reviewer of the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Austria, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, UK, US, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Vietnam and the province of Quebec in Canada.