Italy could become the first nation to crack down on vegan parents, with a proposed law that would make imposing a vegan lifestyle on children a crime punishable by time in prison.
According to the draft legislation – which is still in conference – any parent that forces a child onto a “diet lacking essential elements for an healthy growth” could face up to a year in jail. If the child is under age three, parents could face more than two years behind bars.
Italy’s far right party, which proposed the measure, says it’s necessary to combat the growing trend of “going vegan,” (eight percent of Italians now identify as vegans) and to “stigmatize” what they say are “negligent parental behaviors that put minors at risk.”
The question, however, isn’t whether there are cases of malnourished children who have vegan parents, but whether an entirely new law is required to mandate additional punishment for parents who make unique choices for their kids. Italy already has strict child neglect laws on the books; do they really need an extra provision to punish vegan parents?
While there have been several high-profile cases in Italy involving neglect at the hands of vegan parents, children suffering from vegan diet-related malnutrition still seem to make up only a small fraction of child neglect cases in Europe (and in the U.S.). And most countries recognize that there are responsible ways to raise vegan children, though they do recommend careful monitoring of B12 and calcium levels.
In each case in Europe, authorities were quick to label the case general child neglect, stating that parents didn’t simply feed their children a vegan diet, they failed to provide the care children on such restricted diets require—and that’s the neglect. When the children appeared in emergency rooms, local hospitals quickly referred the cases to child welfare authorities, children were removed from their homes and the parents were disciplined—sometimes even charged.
Italian medical professionals aren’t convinced the law is necessary, because being vegan itself is not a crime. “It is not a problem to choose different or unusual kinds of nutrition, and we certainly do not want to enter into a discussion of the merits of the decision. But since birth, the baby should have had support in this case with calcium and iron,” one Italian doctor told the Washington Post.
Vegans in the U.S. caution that a ham-fisted approach ends up punishing parents who are just trying to do the right thing. “So, as with all child abuse and neglect cases (of which there are thousands we never hear about but we do hear about the one or two who are vegan) I think each should be evaluated individually,” says Lyndsey Fifield, a dedicated vegan and a board member for the White Coat Waste Project.
“There is nothing inherently harmful in a vegan diet for children—it’s only dangerous if the child isn’t getting proper food. So a one-size-fits-all law that’s completely unenforceable will end up punishing good parents.”
