A court in Italy has ruled that a 70-year-old father and a 57-year-old mother of an IVF toddler are “too old” and selfish to raise their daughter, and has urged them to give her up for adoption, Italian media reported last week. The 18-month-old girl known as “Viola” was conceived using artificial insemination after the couple’s requests to adopt were rejected because they were too old. The judges, in Turin in northern Italy, said:

“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.” They said the child is “the fruit of a distorted application of the enormous possibilities offered by genetic progress”.

Neighbours reported the couple to social services after they left “Viola” in the car for a few minutes late one evening, and she was immediately taken into care. The judges ruled that Gabriella de Ambrosis and her husband Luigi showed “a narcissistic need to have a child” and showed “indifference with regard to the child's perspective”. The couple’s lawyer said they are likely to appeal.
~ AFP, Sep 16