BIOETHICS SEMINAR April 15, 2015, 4:10-5:30 pm 155 College St., Room 108 (main floor, to the right of the elevators) This event will be webcast: https://jcb.adobeconnect.com/bioethicsseminars/ Childhood Vaccination and the Moral Work of Motherhood: Putting Vaccine Resistance into Context Alison Thompson, PhD, Assistant Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto Abstract: Vaccinations have been widely hailed as one of the most effective and important developments in public health even as rates of vaccine uptake have dropped within the middle class of high income countries. This problem is often characterized as one of skewed parental risk perception, and misinformation made more prolific by the advent of the internet. This paper reports on the findings from a qualitative, narrative study of maternal experiences with childhood vaccination which seeks to challenge this notion. The findings indicate that neoliberal public health regimes have created mothers who are hyper-vigilant risk managers, and whose experiences with vaccination are embedded within their broader health narratives about being a “good mother.” It is posited that public health has created the very maternal subjectivities that allowed the emergence of this form of resistance inevitable. I explore the implications of the paradox of how these ideal public health citizens can resist the imperative to vaccinate, with particular reference to our notions of what it means to be a good public health citizen. 155 College Street, Ste. 754, Toronto, Ontario M5T 1P8 Canada Tel.: [416] 978-2709 Fax: [416] 978-1911 jcb.utoronto.ca A partnership among the University of Toronto; Baycrest Health Sciences; Centre for Addiction and Mental Health; Centre for Clinical Ethics, a joint venture of Providence Healthcare, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, and St. Michael’s Hospital; Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab; The Hospital for Sick Children; Humber River Hospital; Mount Sinai Hospital; North York General Hospital; Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Toronto Community Care Access Centre; Trillium Health Partners; and University Health Network (Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and Toronto Western Hospital).