From Family Court to Protection Court.

Abstract

According to Italian Law on informed consent and advance directives claims regarding parents' refusal of treatment in favor of a child must be referred to Protection Courts. This paper described some recent decree by District Appeal Courts called to settle the conflict of jurisdiction between Family Courts and Protection Courts in claims regarding the refusal of medical treatment in favor of minors. The decrees by the Court of Appeal confirmed that Protection Courts are entitled to manage claims regarding refusal of medical treatment by parents except when elements of neglect or maltreatment rise. They also established that the refusal of a medical treatment is not sufficient to override parental responsibility when there are no proofs of neglect. The new Italian law marks a difference between the Italian jurisdiction and the ones of other European countries and significantly limited the cases when overriding parents' responsibility is legal.