New rules may soon make it mandatory to register every newborn in Singapore but not the death of family members, under a proposed Bill due for first reading yesterday (10 May).
No, the government doesn’t have enough CCTVs to track if infants are born, or if you are taking your masks off at work. And no, this isn’t meant to implant TraceTogether tokens into every newborn. (Well, not yet, anyway.)
All Births in S’pore Must Be Reported
If the new Bill is passed, births that happen outside of a hospital must be registered at the first possible opportunity, by the parents or a legally appointed person at the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA), according to The Straits Times.
To be a legally appointed person, you’ll need to be the legal guardian of the child, the protector under the Children & Young Persons Act, or the director-general of social welfare from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF).
Obviously, the last option is the easiest.
Currently, births that do not occur at a medical centre need not be reported immediately, and any person can submit the details of the birth to the ICA within 42 days.
The Registrar-General of Births and Deaths will also be able to record a newborn, sans an application.
Offences related to registering births and deaths will be handled by the ICA, instead of the police as has been the case.
Not Necessary to Register Deaths
In contrast, people will no longer be required to manually register the death of a relative, and the issuance of the death certificate will trigger an automatic update that the person has passed away.
The deceased’s NRIC will also be automatically nullified, though the family is advised to destroy it to prevent fraud.
An electronic copy of the death certificate can be obtained from My Legacy, a government platform consolidating information on end-of-life matters.
The Bill will also mandate that a medical practitioner be informed of any deaths. This includes deaths on an aircraft, vessel, or train arriving in Singapore, where the accompanying relative or the person in command of the vehicle will report the death.
Deaths in Singapore can also be registered by authorities before a coroner’s certificate can become available, or where obtaining one is not viable, such as when the body of the deceased cannot be found.
Currently, natural deaths, including deaths by age or disease, are reported to medical practitioners, since a certificate formalising the cause of death is needed for registration.
Other forms of deaths should instead be reported to the police for further investigations.
Feature Image: VasitChaya / Shutterstock.com
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