Under pandemic, euthanasia is not a right

She’s a woman. She was receiving treatment for COVID-19 for many months at the Nicosia Pandemic Hospital. She, known by the initials A.F., was only 29 years old, but the plague didn’t forgive her. She had just lost a child last month. He was only six months old. They said he as well lost his life because of the pandemic. She was against vaccination. She and, unfortunately, her sibling died of the COVID-19. Is it a lie? No, unfortunately, both indeed lost their lives because of obsessive anti-vaccination mentality.

Of course, under normal circumstances, it requires people’s own free decisions, with a few exceptions, whether they will receive medical treatment. Some medical authorities argue that they have the right to refuse treatment on the deathbed, in a sense, euthanasia, that is, the right to die. In prisons, for instance, in many countries, political prisoners used to resort to the occasional death fast. It has always been sad and unacceptable to me that some people put their lives at risk to defend their ideological demands or their social desires, or their demands for improved prison conditions.

Isn’t it a shame about the wasted lives? If the most basic right is the right to live, shouldn’t people stay away from obsessions that threaten their own lives and the lives of others? I think it’s wrong, but they think that suicide is “non-religious,” that those who commit suicide don’t deserve a funeral, a prayer, as even if someone took his own life, indeed rebelled to the fundamentals of religion. You’re right. I think it’s a very insensitive, hard-line opinion.

What A.F. and people like her don’t want to understand is that vaccines cannot be compared to medical treatment in normal times. Normally, all kinds of treatments, organ or blood transfusions, vaccines, prosthetic legs and arm fits are very much the concern of the person involved. They are interventions aimed at providing a healthier or more comfortable life to the person. I mean, as long as the life of a person is not at risk, it’s always personal. But if it’s a disease, that is, a pandemic that threatens all mankind, how free can individuals be?

How much difference is there between a friend infected but ignorant of the fact he might infect others with that virus and a terrorist armed with a bomb and walks in the middle of a huge crowd of people? Is it really so different to spread the pandemic, cause people to die, pull the pin and kill dozens of people?

In pandemic situations, success can only come with vaccination. Although social immunity can only be achieved by vaccinating over 80 percent of the total population, medical experts say this is unfortunately not very true. This fire is not only ruining lives in a certain house, neighborhood, village, city, or just one country, but all mankind is under threat. Therefore, when uncle Hasan in Ankara or A.F. in Cyprus refused to get vaccinated, they do not only pose a threat to themselves or their loved ones, they become a threat to all mankind as if they were wearing explosive vests and walking into crowds.

Two respected doctors died last week at a very important university hospital in Ankara. They were both just in their 40s. Even though they were doctors, they were opposing vaccination. Unfortunately, the virus did not spare them…

The Health Ministry and experts stress that around 90 percent of those who die almost daily are non-vaccinated or lazy for the second vaccine. In many of our southeastern provinces, the placement of spirals for contraception for a period was rejected in the paranoia that “the state will listen to us.” As irrelevant as it appears, it as well shows the level of illiteracy. Now, in Diyarbakir, for instance, anti-vaccination is spreading on claims that the vaccine leads to infertility. However, it is constantly being emphasized by medical men that one important result of this pandemic is infertility.

In the meantime, although I do not trust the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute and do not know if it is related to the pandemic, it is very important to explain that the total fertility rate in Turkey, which refers to the average number of children in the 15-49 age group, which is the period of the fertility of women, has decreased from 1.88 percent children in 2019 to 1.76 percent children in 2020. Given the fact that many experts remind society that the level required to regenerate is 1.80 percent, I think the drop in the birth rate is an alarm bell that should be taken seriously.