Part IV - Regulation of Parent-Child Relationship

Summary

How does the Women's Charter regulate the relationship between parents and their child?

Section 46(1)

The Women's Charter in section 46(1) directs the husband and wife that they are mutually bound to cooperate with each other in caring and providing for their children.

Parental responsibility

The Women's Charter tells all parents that they owe parental responsibility towards their child or children. Parental responsibility has become a commonly used concept since the United Nations-sponsored Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted it, but this international document did not exist until 1989. Singapore enacted section 46(1) in 1961. The concept has been a part of the law of Singapore for a good twenty-eight years before it became accepted by the international community as the moral way to convey the relationship between parents and their child! This is not to say that the United Nations copied the concept from Singapore but it affirms the moral quality of the family law in Singapore that some of the ideas within the Women's Charter predated their gaining international acceptance.

Assume responsibility

By becoming a parent a person assumes responsibility towards the child. An adult becomes a parent of a child either naturally through the biological process of conception (whether or not there was any medical assistance in the conception or gestation of the child) or through the judicial process of adoption. The details of the effect of assisted conception on parenthood are beyond the scope of this book. The point is that a parent assumes the role voluntarily. It is by no means forced on him or her. Particularly while a child remains young and dependent on the parent it is right of the law to view the parent as owing responsibility towards the child.

Cooperative

Parental responsibility is to be discharged cooperatively. The father and mother of a child are expected by law to cooperate with each other in caring and providing for him or her. Indeed, parenting may be said to require the highest cooperation by the parents as only then can the well-being of the child be assured. The law in Singapore demands no less of all adults who choose to become parents.

Moral perspective

The concept of parental responsibility conveys the parent-child relationship in a moral tone.