An enquiry on ethical problems occurring with vaccination

Vaccine applications appear as one of the most important and current issues among today's practical ethical issues. Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions about vaccines and their applications have found wide coverage in many disciplines in the field of social sciences, especially medicine, philosophy, sociology, and psychology. Among the practical ethical problems that arise in vaccine applications, access to vaccines and injustice, lack of informed consent about the side effects and risks of the vaccine, legal and political pressure, and debates about compulsory vaccination are the main problems. The philosophical perspective on these problems emphasizes the importance of bringing together and adopting a balanced approach through the theories put forward in the field of ethics, as one of the basic disciplines of philosophy. These problems are accompanied by different ethical perspectives. Based on ethical theories, it is important to evaluate vaccine applications in terms of the benefits to the individual and society. Vaccines not only protect people's health and increase social welfare but are also important for protecting one's own life. However, in addition to the administration of vaccines, examples of unfair access to or distribution of vaccines at local and global levels raise concerns about the protectability of fundamental rights. Ethical theories in the history of philosophy can shed light on solutions to practical ethical problems about vaccines and their applications in the practical field. In particular, the ethical perspectives of Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and today Kuçuradi offer different theoretical perspectives that can be taken as reference to see and solve ethical problems in vaccine applications. In this study, we will try to discuss how the ethical views of these thinkers can be a reference for the solution of ethical problems encountered in vaccine applications and access, and how people and society can live in the long term with the solution of these problems.