A few days ago I was shown a document from the Ministry of Health that I found extremely disturbing.  It declares that 12 - 15 year olds do not require permission from a Parent or Guardian to give their own consent to receive the Covid 19 vaccine if their health care provider is confident that they are competent to give consent. 

Since when has a 12 - 15 year old been deemed competent to make this type of decision? 

In our culture 14 is the legal age at which you are deemed responsible to stay at home without supervision,  16 the legal age at which one can apply for a driving licence, leave school, leave home without consent or give consent for sex.  Importantly also, until they are 16, children require parental consent for medical or dental treatment.  As a parent I simply do not see why, if I am still responsible to care for my child in these ways until they are 16, how it makes sense in any way for my child to be given the responsibility to make a decision on whether or not to receive medical intervention such as vaccination for Covid 19 at 12 - 15 years of age.  

Putting the responsibility for this choice on our youth is unfair to them - as science has shown the brain of a teenager is undergoing a massive overhaul and the ability for them to make rational decisions is diminished.  I firmly believe that in the majority of cases the best people to help guide young teens is not the state but the family to which the child belongs.

The decision to take this responsibility away from whanau and to place it instead with the child also undermines the responsibility of whanau to care for their youth.  Additionally it leaves the child susceptible to government agenda’s of the day, rather than with those who arguably care most for the child as an individual.

Also in the case of this consent to receive the Phizer Covid vaccine, it is disturbing that these children are able to make this decision despite the vaccine approval from the FDA only being for use in individuals 16 years and older.  The use of this vaccine in individuals 12 -15 years is only authorised by the FDA in an emergency use situation - surely this type of use (i.e. outside of the recommended use age) would be grounds for Parents or Guardians to weigh up any risks or benefits involved in this situation.  These choices are hard to be certain about for Doctors and other adults already - I fail to see how shifting the onus for these decisions onto our 12 - 15 year olds is anything less than irresponsible.

I ask the NZ Government to revoke their decision enabling 12 - 15 year olds to make this type of  decision (and this decision in relation to the Covid 19 Phizer vaccine in particular) and to reinstate the status quo where these impactful decisions are only taken with the express consent of a parent or guardian.