VACCINATION AGAINST COVID-19 - THE ONE’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE OR A COMMUNITY OBLIGATION?

Abstract

The pandemic circumstances in which both the Republic of Serbia and the world find themselves three years in a row, have triggered numerous debates on various aspects of living in “new normal” conditions. Starting with the ban on free movement of citizens during a certain period of the day (so-called curfew), (re)learning the basic rules of hand hygiene, providing personal (safe) space to each person, experts from different fields have been crossing their arguments on (scientific) battlefields for months, regarding each of the declared preventive measures for prevention of spreading of further infection. Fighting this enemy, which is invisible, its mode of attack and speed of attack on the human body unpredictable and constantly changing, has given rise to a special campaign for mandatory vaccination of certain categories of the population, in order to protect them from death from this disease, because their immune system is considered more vulnerable to infection. However, in particular, the concept of compulsory vaccination has come under attack from individual rights advocates (who are also in favor of their primacy over collective rights - believing that the community is made up of many satisfied individuals).

This paper will consider the confrontation of two concepts - individual rights and collective rights, in the context of vaccination against Covid-19. The individual right of each person is in this case his right to choose, which guarantees the person the autonomy in choosing medical treatment or giving up any treatment. On the other hand, the right of a community to demand that its members submit to its demands for self-preservation, by having to do something they do not fully agree with, exceeds the compromise limit that an individual agrees to when entering a community. Striving to receive protection in the community, especially the protection of his autonomy and individuality, the individual found himself betrayed in pandemic circumstances because his individuality was grossly violated by the request for vaccination. Otherwise, a member of the community who wanted to exercise his right to vote was expelled from the community and denied the realization of numerous other rights. Or isn't it?

The question we want to shed light on here is: how much freedom is enough for an individual, without endangering the community in which he lives and thus acting self-destructively on his own? Is there a limit, or have those limits been erased in pandemic circumstances?