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LA STAMPA

Mother At 56 Thanks To Assisted Fertility, Now Fights For Custody Of Daughter

An Italian mother, now 58, and father, 70, are fighting to have their two-year-old back from foster care. The couple appealed in court to get the child back, claiming that she was taken away from them because of their age. Now a judge has ordered a new pr

In Italy, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May (Keoni Cabral)
In Italy, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May (Keoni Cabral)
Grazia Longo

TORINO – They didn't shed a tear for the six hours of the hearing. "We are balanced people, absolutely able to be parents," said Gabriella Deambrosis, a 58-year-old librarian who gave birth two years ago to a daughter.

Deambrosis and her husband, Luigi, (he's a retired clerk, aged 70), were in court this week fighting for custody of their daughter Viola, who was was taken away last September after social services determined they were not fit to raise the girl. The couple, who conceived the girl with the help of assisted fertility, appeared this week before the family section of the Court of Appeals.

The court had to decide whether Viola (a pseudonym) should return and live with them, or stay with the foster family, who would then be able to permanently adopt her. While Viola remains with the foster family, judges Wednesday ordered a new probe into the capacity of the couple to raise the child.

The case first came to light last September, when the Children's Tribunal of Turin forced the Deambrosises to give up custody of their daughter. The couple appealed the verdict. Rather than taking a definite decision Wednesday, judges ordered the launch of new probe to assess the "parental capacity" of the couple.

"They punished us because of our age, because we are not young," says Luigi Deambrosis.

The lower court judge had said that age was not the deciding factor, but rather signs that the baby girl had not been properly looked after, including an episode where Luigi left Viola in the car while he unloaded groceries.

The deputy prosecutor did not seem convinced by the original probe of the law enforcement officer who inspected the couple, and called for a new evaluation. "We are confident because we have found magistrates who listened to us," said Fabio Deorsola, the couple's lawyer.

Judges followed the prosecution's recommendations. One psychiatrist and one psychologist will help assess the ability of the couple to be parents. A decision is expected in September. Until then, Viola will remain with the foster family.

Read the original article in Italian

Photo – Keoni Cabral

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Ideas

Look At This Crap! The "Enshittification" Theory Of Why The Internet Is Broken

The term was coined by journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the fatal drift of major Internet platforms: if they were ever useful and user-friendly, they will inevitably end up being odious.

A photo of hands holding onto a smartphone

A person holding their smartphone

Gilles Lambert/ZUMA
Manuel Ligero

-Analysis-

The universe tends toward chaos. Ultimately, everything degenerates. These immutable laws are even more true of the Internet.

In the case of media platforms, everything you once thought was a good service will, sooner or later, disgust you. This trend has been given a name: enshittification. The term was coined by Canadian blogger and journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the inevitable drift of technological giants toward... well.

The explanation is in line with the most basic tenets of Marxism. All digital companies have investors (essentially the bourgeoisie, people who don't perform any work and take the lion's share of the profits), and these investors want to see the percentage of their gains grow year after year. This pushes companies to make decisions that affect the service they provide to their customers. Although they don't do it unwillingly, quite the opposite.

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Annoying customers is just another part of the business plan. Look at Netflix, for example. The streaming giant has long been riddling how to monetize shared Netflix accounts. Option 1: adding a premium option to its regular price. Next, it asked for verification through text messages. After that, it considered raising the total subscription price. It also mulled adding advertising to the mix, and so on. These endless maneuvers irritated its audience, even as the company has been unable to decide which way it wants to go. So, slowly but surely, we see it drifting toward enshittification.

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