Rome, Italy, Jul 23, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The Italian Supreme Court ruled last week that parents do not have the legal right to abort a baby just because it is known, while the baby is still in the womb, that he or she will have a handicap, reported LifeNews.com.
Italian law says abortion is only allowed, "in order to avoid danger for the mother of the child." As a result, "a so-called 'eugenic' abortion is not admissible, unless fetal deformations endanger the mother's health," reads the ruling.
An Italian couple had filed a lawsuit against their doctor, arguing that the doctor should have told them about the potential physical disability of their child so they could have opted for an abortion or traveled to a country where courts would have backed their decision to end the life of their baby.
The Supreme Court’s ruling overturned a previous decision by the Appeals Court of Trieste, which had found the doctor guilty.