REVIEW   

Minerva Medicolegale 2017 December;137(4):103-7

DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4849.18.01771-6

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Historical evolution of the controversial concept of “ethical invalidity”: the phenix who has been REBORN, in the modern era, from the ashes of legal medicine

Michele SAMMICHELI ✉

Private Practitioner, CML INPS, Siena, Italy

The author traces the history of the concept of “ethical invalidity,” from its appearance in the 1930s to its latest jurisprudential applications in the early 21st century. The aim of this work was to try to give an explanation of the classification of this type of damage, first in the context of the so-called “moral damages” and, therefore, its slippage in the “biological damages” of a psychic nature. The explanation that the author furnishes us is to be sought in the changed historical, ideological and philosophical conditions that saw the first birth of the concept and then were spectators of its application, sometimes distorted, in the jurisprudential and medical legal field.

KEY WORDS: Disability evaluation - Jurisprudence - Forensic medicine