ANKARA, Turkey — Few would have thought that Turkey’s political divide — running deep on myriad issues, from economic woes and femicides to pandemic measures and university rectors — could extend to critically ill infants in need of costly treatment to survive. The new rift, involving ministers and opposition figures, has come as a stunning milestone in the divisions of Turkish society, leaving the families of the sick children dismayed.
Lying at the core of the controversy are the limits Ankara has set in covering the ultra-expensive treatment of infants with spinal muscular atrophy, a deadly genetic disorder that progressively destroys nerve cells controlling the muscles.