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Sep 30, 2021
Interesting psak: vaccinating against father's agreement
Kikar is reporting on an interesting psak issued by the regional beis din of the Jerusalem area, presided by the honorable rabbis Rav Meir Kahn, Rav Yaakov Steinhaus, and Rav Yitzchak Ushinski.
The issue presented was one of the mother of teenage children wanting to vaccinate her children against the CoronaVirus - a 13 year old and a 15 year old child, both qualifying for the vaccine. the father is opposed to the vaccines. The question is if she can take them to get vaccinated without his agreement.
The beis din decided that the opinion submitted by the father was overkill and in the 50 pages he submitted he was trying to convince them that the vaccines are bad and the children should not be vaccinated. The mother's submitted position was one based on the Ministry of Health's experts, encouraging the public, including children this age, to get vaccinated.
The mother submitted a doctor's letter asserting the children are at no special risk as they have no underlying conditions and are in good health with the doctor's recommendation to vaccinate the children. The father countered that the doctor is not an expert in this matter.
The beis din concluded that the mother is allowed to vaccinate her children against the wishes of the father, as long as the children agree to be vaccinated.
Technically the psak might be right and just, but it seems like a recipe for the opposite of shalom bayis. The kids shouldnt be put at health risk to preserve the shalom bayis of the parents, but perhaps the beis din should mandate them finding a way to decide together and come to some compromise.
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Why are you assuming that having them vaccinated against the wishes of the father is worse for shalom bayis than not having them vaccinated against the wishes of the mother? Especially considering that the potential downside of the latter is much greater than the former.
ReplyDeleteYep, two thumbs up :)
Deleteit seems to me that either way, a decision to allow one side to act against the wishes of the other, is a bad recipe and a bad solution. Maybe they saw the parents had no chance to compromise so they had to decide this. I dont know. Just saying that if the situation became such a fight that it ended up in beis din, allowing one side to act against the wishes of the other is not going to end well in the long run.
DeleteThe couple ended up in Beis Din to figure out how to make a parenting decision. They are way beyond the point of Beis Din having to worry about Shalom Bayit.
Delete"come to some compromise"
ReplyDeleteLike what? Giving the kids only have a dose of the vaccine?