2020 National Paediatric Bioethics Conference - Debate: If a COVID-19 vaccine is found to be safe and effective, should it be mandatory?

Speakers: Professors Dominic Wilkinson and Julian Savulescu, from the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at Oxford University, UK. Moderator: Professor David Isaacs, Clinician-ethicist and infectious diseases physician, Children’s Hospital, Westmead, Australia.

In this session, Prof Savulescu accepts the premise that a safe COVID-19 vaccine is developed and brings a consequentialist approach to justify mandatory vaccination. Prof Wilkinson rebuts this, indicating mandatory vaccination is unjustified coercion.