ROME, April 5: In a ruling that has sent a shiver down many parents’ spines, Italy’s highest appeals court has decreed that fathers must carry on supporting adult children until they find a job to their liking.

Psychologists warned that the decision could discourage people from having children in a country whose birthrate is already one of the lowest in the world, while commentators said it could boost Italy’s already high unemployment rate.

The case revolves around a wealthy family in the southern city of Naples, where the father is still paying some 774 euros ($680) a month in maintenance to a son who is in his 30s and has a university law degree.

The son also has a trust fund worth some 250,000 euros, lives in one of the smartest parts of the city, and has turned down several job offers.

But the court ruled that the father, Giuseppe Andreoli, who is a former parliamentarian and a respected Neapolitan medic, should carry on supporting his estranged son. “You cannot blame a young person, particularly from a well-off family, who refuses a job that does not fit his aspirations. The parents have to pay for their upkeep,” said the court in a verdict handed down earlier this week.

Andreoli said on Friday he was shocked by the decision.

“I feel disgust for a country that I love. It wasn’t always like this,” he said.—Reuters