Nicotine Vaccines for Smoking Prevention and Treatment from Utilitarian and Deontological Ethical Perspectives

Abstract

Nicotine vaccines is a new prevention and treatment method to prevent and treat smoking behavior. These vaccines are promising tool to cease smoking among adults who smoke and prevent this behaviour from taking place among those who do not smoke. Nicotine vaccines also have the potential to provide an opportunity to prevent nicotine addiction among adolescents and children who do not smoke. Although the nicotine vaccines are sufficient to prevent smoking among adult smokers, there is no evidence from research showing the effectiveness of these vaccines in adolescents and children who have never been exposed to nicotine. Therefore, offering these vaccines to adults, adolescents, and children will undoubtedly raise an ethical debate among policy-makers, health professionals, and the public. In this paper, we discussed the possibility of using nicotine vaccines to treat and prevent smoking among adults/children/adolescents through the lenses of two ethical theories: utilitarianism and deontology (Kantianism). We concluded that from a utilitarian perspective, nicotine vaccines are good for society as it provide the greatest benefit for the greatest number of individuals as a healthy ethical choice to prevent and treat smoking. On the other hand, nicotine vaccines are more justified from the deontological perspective because individuals must prevent the harm of nicotine addiction by choosing nicotine vaccines or any other smoking prevention and treatment methods.