January 27, 2018, 09:01 PM 
A Jan. 13, 2018 article in The Economist about a surrogacy case involving a gay Singaporean has received a formal rebuttal from the Singapore High Commissioner to the UK, Foo Chi Hsia.
“Rules are thicker than blood” (January 13th) derided Singapore’s norms on what constitutes a family as “Victorian”. Our values and social norms on what makes for a stable family unit are conservative and shape the government’s policies and rules on adoption. They differ from today’s Western norms, which are historically recent and by no means uncontested, even in Western societies. Singaporeans will determine their own pace of any change in family values.
A push for rapid social change, especially on contentious moral issues, risks polarising society and producing unintended results. In Singapore nearly all children are born and raised in wedlock, starkly different from what now happens in the West. We make no claim to know which values are best for every society. The Economist may think Singapore is quaint and old-fashioned, but time will tell if a cautious approach to social change is wiser.
FOO CHI HSIA
High commissioner for Singapore
London
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About the case
The Economist article, which prompted the rebuttal, had labelled Singapore's attitude towards non-traditional families as "Victorian".
The case that was highlighted was about a gay Singaporean who had paid US$200,000 to father a boy through surrogacy arrangements in the United States.
It was first reported in December 2017.
The Singaporean man, a doctor, is in a gay relationship with a partner here. The couple has been together for 15 years and had lived together for nine.
While the man was allowed to bring his son back to Singapore as the biological father, his application to a Singapore court to adopt him to "legitimise his relationship with the child" was turned down.
The boy is now four years old and holds American citizenship. He might be able to become a Singapore citizen, if the adoption went through, it was argued.
The Economist described the ruling by District Judge Shobha Nair as having "firmly laid out that the ideal family unit, in the eyes of the Singaporean state, entails the marriage of a man to a woman".
In response, Foo retorted in her reply: "In Singapore nearly all children are born and raised in wedlock, starkly different from what now happens in the West."
Previous rebuttals to The Economist:
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