News has come to my attention that courts in Italy have made attempts to stop mandatory vaccination. The first case involved 50 brave families who took their complaints to the appeal court in Ancona. These families refused to give vaccines to their children and WON their appeal!
Gary Krasner, the Director of the Coalition For Informed Choice received an email from a reliable source telling him the news. According to his source this decision was made a few years ago, however, it appears that much of this historic news was suppressed by the media.
The link that Mr Krasner was given http://www.mednat.org/vaccini/vittoria_vaccini.htm certainly appears to back this information up. It is in Italian and one translation reads :
“ANCONA, Thursday April 4 2002-Wins “free vaccine”. Now parents can prevent marches to their children the three compulsory statutory prophylaxis (difto-polio, tetanus and hepatitis b) without running the risk of the limitation of the fatherland potest [sic]. A nuisance not only formal, that of breach of articles 330 and 333 of the civil code, because the judge or guardian could replace MOM and pap for subjecting the little fellow to controversial sting.
But, for logical consequence of the pronouncement of the Court of appeal of Ancona, now families will decide according to their conscience, without having to worry about most anything.”
(apologies for the poor quality of this translation)
Sadly I could find no more information on this case.
Despite this case winning however, it appears that nothing has changed in Italy and vaccinations are still mandatory: http://venice.cineca.org/documents/italy_ip.pdf
My research shows however, that this is not only case attempting to ban mandatory vaccinations in Italy. According to an article published in Il Giornale di Vicenza, 20 September 2003 entitled ‘Vaccines No Longer a Must’ a similar case was so strong that the court took the very unusual action of suspending all court proceedings involving parents objecting to vaccination, and put the matter before the Constitutional Court who would then decide the legitimacy of the laws that mandate anti-tetanus vaccinations.
See it here: (http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003…)
The lawyer from Rimini Luca Ventaloro, expert of minor and family laws and legal council for the “Comilva” the association which assists these couples made this statement:
“This decision is of historical importance”, says the lawyer, “and it opens a very interesting scenario. The minors section of the Venice appeals court not only has confirmed what for years has been common practice in the Emilia Romagna region, it has taken a futher [sic] step ahead. For the first time, in fact, not only has a medical opinion been asked about the minors, but also on the components of the vaccine, and this morning (yesterday) after receiving the medical opinions, the court has suspended all pending proceedings regarding the tetanus shots and has raised the question of constitutionality with regard to the law that imposes them.”
It would have been extremely interesting to read what was said by the medical professionals asked and to know which medical professionals they were. It has been reported that one of the main motives for taking this case forward was the fact the tetanus vaccine contained mercury and attempts were being made to remove all mercury containing vaccines from the market. At the time, it was felt it was equally important to highlight that tetanus was not contagious and could not be passed from person to person therefore the vaccine was not required. The lawyer said:
“It is not a virus but a spore and as such it is not contagious. The decision reminds us that the anti-tetanus shot became obligatory when children were playing in the streets and fields. Today, living in apartments, it is unlikely that they would get in contact with the tetanus spores”
The original article can be found here in Italian (http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/ivaningrilli…)
What happened to these cases and why the news was buried remains a mystery. It appears that something far stronger than court decisions plays an extremely important part in keeping vaccines mandatory in Italy and other countries around the world.
Vaccines should be a personal choice. It is clear that in both of these cases parents fought a legal battle and won but despite their efforts, diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, and hepatitis B vaccines are still mandatory in Italy. In other words these court cases have proved futile and the only way to avoid mandatory vaccination in Italy is to move to a country where vaccines are not mandatory.