Father Wants His Daughter To Be Vaccinated Against COVID-19 But Ex-wife Is Against It, Court Is Forced To Intervene

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

JAKARTA - The Singapore court has decided on a unique case. When a father wants his 16-year-old daughter to be vaccinated but his ex-wife is against it.

Finally, the court has ruled in favor of a man who wants his 16-year-old daughter to be vaccinated.

However, the teenager's father was ordered to pay his ex-wife S$2,000 in court fees for allowing their daughter to have her first COVID-19 shot while the court proceedings were ongoing.

District Judge Kenneth Yap gave full weight to a child's preference for vaccination. He said he took his decision in a reasonable way.

The father, 49, is a British citizen and a permanent resident of Singapore. While the mother of the child is a 53-year-old Singaporean citizen.

They married in 2003 and had a daughter in 2005. The man successfully filed for divorce in 2015, and has since remarried.

Their daughter is now 16 years old and studying in Singapore, and her parents have joint custody of her. According to her father, there were no problems in her treatment arrangements as to whether the teenager should receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The girl's father filed an application with the Family Justice Court in October, seeking a ruling for his daughter to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at his discretion.

The father thought it was his daughter's best decision, especially given the government's policy of living with the virus and the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Singapore at the time.

The man represented by lawyer Chung Ting Fai displayed various news articles and appeals from government agencies that the COVID-19 vaccine was safe to use on teenagers.

Chung Ting Fai said it was his client's own daughter who wanted to be vaccinated while attaching a handwritten note about wanting an injection for two reasons: To prevent herself from falling seriously ill if she caught the virus, and to socialize with her friends and travel abroad to visit her grandparents and relatives.

The girl was also declared medically fit to continue with the vaccine, with no previous allergic reactions to the vaccine or drugs or medical conditions that prevented her from taking it.

The mother argued that co-parental consent was necessary for their daughter to receive the stab, as she was under 21, and there was no basis for her ex-husband to allow the child to make his own decisions in this matter.