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	Parents will face up to four years in jail for enforcing veganism if legislation passes</p>
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	If politician Elvira Savino has her way, Italian parents who insist on a vegan diet for their children will risk up to four years in jail.</p>
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	Ms Savino, from the conservative Forza Italia party, has put forward a law that would hold parents legally responsible if they feed their children &ldquo;a diet devoid of elements essential for healthy and balanced growth&rdquo;.</p>
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	&ldquo;I have nothing against vegans or veganism, as long as it is a free choice by adults,&rdquo; she told Reuters in a telephone interview on Wednesday, days after she presented the proposed law in the lower house Chamber of Deputies.</p>
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	&ldquo;I just find it absurd that some parents are allowed to impose their will on children in an almost fanatical, religious way, often without proper scientific knowledge or medical consultation,&rdquo; she said.</p>
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	&ldquo;Do-it-yourself on these matters terrorises me.&rdquo;</p>
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	Some paediatricians advise against feeding children on a vegan diet, saying that it can lack sufficient nutrition.</p>
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	Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or poultry, but vegans also do not eat animal products such as eggs and dairy foods.</p>
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	The law proposes jail sentences of a year for raising a child on a vegan diet, jail sentences of up to four years if the child develops a permanent health problem due to the diet and up to seven years if the child dies.</p>
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	The law would apply to children under 16 and the penalties would increase by a year if the child is under the age of three.</p>
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	Ms Savino (39), who has a seven-year-old son and who eats meat &ldquo;but not too much&rdquo;, said she proposed the law after being shocked by several recent incidents in Italy.</p>
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	Court cases</p>
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	Last month in the northern city of Milan, doctors determined that a one-year-old boy who was taken to a hospital had the weight of a three-month-old because of his vegan diet.</p>
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	In 2015, an Italian court ordered a divorced mother to stop raising her 12-year-old son on a vegan diet after the boy&rsquo;s father filed a complaint that it was stunting his growth.</p>
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	&ldquo;If even only one child ends up in a hospital because of this behaviour, I feel we have to protect them all,&rdquo; said Ms Savino, noting that she believes paediatricians should be obliged to report vegan parents to authorities in the same manner as if they noticed signs of physical abuse on a child.</p>
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	The draft will be discussed by parliamentary committees before it goes to the floor for debate. That is expected this year.</p>
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	(Published by the Irish Times on the 10th August 2016)</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/italy-to-consider-law-against-vegan-diets-for-children-1.2751852">http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/italy-to-consider-law-against-vegan-diets-for-children-1.2751852</a></p>
