Netherlands: 12-yr-old wins Court battle to get COVID jab & spend time with ailing grandma

In a first-of-its-kind case, a 12-year-old Dutch boy won the right to get a COVID jab in a court battle against his father. The verdict was passed by Judge Bart Tromp in the Groningen District Court in the Netherlands on Thursday. As per a BBC report, the case ended up in court after the unnamed boy's father refused to get him inoculated before going to this grandmother's house.

The boy wanted to spend as much time possible with his grandmother, who is "in the last stage" of her life due to metastatic lung cancer. The teenager feared unless he was inoculated, there loomed a high risk of passing on the infection to his granny, to which his father was defiant. According to the court papers, the boy wanted to get his jab "because he did not want to get infected or risk potential transfer of any kind of infection to his ailing grandmother."

Talking about his ruling, Judge Bart explained that he granted permission to the boy because of "interests involved in vaccination, in particular interest of this minor." While his mother agreed to get the COVID vaccine, his father argued that the jabs were "still in a test phase," Deutsch Welle reported.  Judge Bart Tromp rejected the father's appeal citing lack of "scientific evidence," when he said that COVID-19 vaccines "posed risk on reproductive organs." He also stated that the boy must recieve his due vaccine "shortly" and before further appeals from his father's lawyers.

It is to be noted that 12-to 17-year-olds are allowed to get COVID vaccination in the Netherlands, with their parent's consent.  However, in this case, decision was made by the court since the guardians were divorced. Additionally, the boy also "found it difficult to talk to his father and felt his pleas were unheard."

Netherlands COVID cases and vaccination

On the COVID front, Netherlands has reported nearly 20 lakh cases with 18,144 COVID-related fatalities. As of September 23, the European country recorded 1,823 fresh cases of COVID-19, which took the weekly average tally to 1,788 cases. On the vaccination front, overall 2.23 crore doses have been administered among the people. According to the Netherlands health bulletin, around 63% i.e. 1.1 crores have been completely vaccinated in the country.

Image: AP (representative)