Courts in Spain Order Forced COVID-19 Vaccination of Incapacitated Nursing Home Residents
In what appears to be the first case of a court ordered forced COVID-19 vaccination, a court in Galicia, Spain sided with a nursing home to require an incapacitated women to get the COVID-19 vaccine over her families objections. Even though the Spanish government has maintained that the novel vaccine would be voluntary, the nursing home effectively took custody of the woman, who suffered from dementia, and vaccinated her without the informed consent of her family. The woman was deemed, “incapacitated to provide valid consent,” according to the nursing home. Judge Javier Fraga Mandian stated that the court had a legal obligation to intervene and override the family’s wishes in order to protect the woman’s health and that his decision was not based on the welfare of other residents. He claimed he stated that his decision was based on what he determined was irrefutable evidence that not receiving the vaccine would be riskier than the side effects of the vaccine due to the “existence of tens of thousands of deaths” from coronavirus in Spain.