Court allows a 16-year-old boy to decide whether to get the covid vaccine after disagreements between his parents

The Provincial Court of Pontevedra has granted a 16-year-old teenager the power to decide whether or not to get vaccinated against covid-19, after the case came to court due to the discrepancies between his parents, now separated.

In May 2022, when the minor was still 15 years old, the Court of First Instance number 5 of Vigo had issued an order granting the mother the power to decide whether to be vaccinated or not, without the need for approval of the father. He was against this inoculation because he doubted the benefits it granted.

Thus, the man appealed this decision in the first instance, claiming that he was only asking for “time so that it can be determined whether the vaccines against Covid-19 are as safe as they claim and there are no significant side effects in the medium and long term.”

The mother, on the other hand, defended that “all official medical organisations”, as well as health authorities, recommended vaccination.

Now, the sixth section of the Provincial Court of Pontevedra – based in Vigo – has decreed the file of the case and has granted the minor himself the ability to decide.

The reason is that the son is already 16 years old and that Law 41/2002, regulating patient autonomy, to which the father also referred, allows people who reach that age, in general, to choose their subjecting to health treatments.

Furthermore, the magistrate highlights in the order the “determination and maturity” shown by the boy in his willingness not to be vaccinated, “beyond the right or wrong” of a decision that, as he emphasises, “must be respected.”

Therefore, once the minor is 16 years old, the Provincial Court has archived the procedure due to sudden lack of object and has endorsed that it is the child who decides. There is no appeal against this resolution, which is now final.

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