Toddler recommended put up for adoption due to old parents - Italy

[merithyn]

I was immediately sick to my stomach when I read this article. Italy consistently shocks and sickens me with their medieval view of the world.

Rome. A court in Italy has ruled that the 70 and 57-year old parents of a toddler are "too old" and selfish to raise her and have recommended she be put up for adoption, Italian media reported on Friday.

The 18-month old girl, known as "Viola," was conceived with the help of artificial insemination after the couple's repeated applications to adopt a child were turned down on the basis that they were too old.

"They never thought about the fact that their daughter would be orphaned at a very young age, and before that would be forced to care for her elderly parents," ruled four judges in a Turin court in northern Italy.

The child is "the fruit of a distorted application of the enormous possibilities offered by genetic progress," they said.

The couple were reported to social services by neighbors after they left the infant alone in a car for a few minutes late one evening, and "Viola" was immediately taken into care.

The judges ruled that librarian Gabriella De Ambrosis and her retired husband Luigi were driven by "a narcissistic need to have a child" and showed "indifference with regard to the child's perspective."

The couple, who married in 1990 when Gabrielle was 36 and spent years trying to conceive naturally, are planning to appeal the ruling, their lawyer said.

Agence France-Presse

[Valmy]

Orphaned at a young age?  The mother is 57.  How soon do people die over there?  The court might be right depending on other factors but on its surface this seems absurd.

[Barrister]

Well they better come and apprehend my kid because I've left him alone in the car for a few minutes before.

[Valmy]

Well they better come and apprehend my kid because I've left him alone in the car for a few minutes before.

Well right are we talking 5 minutes or like 20 minutes? 

[garbon]

I agree that said individuals should not have been helped to have a child.  They certainly would have been barred from adopting a kid.

[Martinus]

Are you retarded? How is this view "medieval"? Not everything you disagree with is "medieval". In fact, this seems like a very progressive/technocratic move - quite the opposite of the feudal/medieval stress on family ties.

Anyway, basing parental authority on genetics is a rather outdated concept. I voted that the court was right.

[Barrister]

Well they better come and apprehend my kid because I've left him alone in the car for a few minutes before.

Well right are we talking 5 minutes or like 20 minutes?

Well... I've left him in there a couple of times for lengthy periods when he was sleeping (and badly needed to sleep), but I was always so nervous I'd run out and check on him every 5 minutes (and he was in our own driveway), but mostly I was thinking of running into a store quickly for 2 minutes when I know the baby'd much prefer to just stay there playing with his toys than to be unbuckled dragged into the store, then buckled up again.

[Martinus]

The couple were reported to social services by neighbors after they left the infant alone in a car for a few minutes late one evening, and "Viola" was immediately taken into care.

It's spelled "voila". 

[jimmy olsen]

Horrifying.

[merithyn]

Are you retarded? How is this view "medieval"? Not everything you disagree with is "medieval". In fact, this seems like a very progressive/technocratic move - quite the opposite of the feudal/medieval stress on family ties.

Medieval in terms of the idea that those in power have absolute control over what happens to the "serfs" they govern.

Anyway, basing parental authority on genetics is a rather outdated concept. I voted that the court was right.

I'm shocked by this. Absolutely stunned.

[Valmy]

Are you retarded? How is this view "medieval"? Not everything you disagree with is "medieval". In fact, this seems like a very progressive/technocratic move - quite the opposite of the feudal/medieval stress on family ties.

Wow.

All power to the Nomenclatura eh?

[Barrister]

The judges ruled that librarian Gabriella De Ambrosis and her retired husband Luigi were driven by "a narcissistic need to have a child" and showed "indifference with regard to the child's perspective."

So the child would have preferred to have never been born?

[Martinus]

I hope someone takes Merrithyn's kids away from her. Like, her obviously more responsible ex-husband.

[Martinus]

The judges ruled that librarian Gabriella De Ambrosis and her retired husband Luigi were driven by "a narcissistic need to have a child" and showed "indifference with regard to the child's perspective."

So the child would have preferred to have never been born?

That's how I feel about quite a few Languishites.

[PDH]

Medieval in terms of the idea that those in power have absolute control over what happens to the "serfs" they govern.

Then you are misusing the term and your definition has no basis in history.  How medieval.