ABSTRACT

Under Italian law, legal capacity is a condition for the exercise of healthcare self-determination rights. Consequently, a minor under the age of 18 is not entitled to agree on his own on the content of the medical care contractual services he is to be provided with and indeed the consent of his legal representatives is requested to this end. It is however debatable whether the full mentally sound minor is entitled to refuse live-saving therapies when such therapies appear to be in contrast with the tenets of its religious faith. In this respect, medical treatments undertaken without the minor’s actual consent, in these cases and on the assumption of his lack of legal capacity, could severely affect the value system so inherently connected to his personality, with emotional (and other) material consequences for the patient. It is therefore necessary to find a legal ground in order to balance the safeguard of individual’s religious values and consequent choices while comply with the fundamental principles of the legal system. A possible option could be given by the socalled intercultural medicine, which would allow for the preservation of the psychological well-being of the patients.