Can a child take legal action to release himself in advance from his obligation to help his parent in need?

Service-Public.fr replies:

The Civil Code provides the obligation for children to help a parent without resources. We talk about «maintenance obligation». Parents also have a maintenance obligation towards their children. The law stipulates that the obligations of the parent and the child are reciprocal.

Reciprocity of support obligations allows for the fair treatment of situations where a parent has failed to meet his or her own obligations. In the event of a serious breach of his obligations towards the child, the child may be exempted from assisting his or her parent by invoking the indignity exception.

Can we, as Elodie would like, make the indignity known in advance and make sure that we never owe anything to a parent?

This is not possible because preventive actions are prohibited. Indeed, the person who brings the case before the courts must have an interest in acting at the time he makes his request. As long as the child is not asked to help his parent, his interest in acting is not present, he remains future and possible. Any legal claim on his part is inadmissible.

The indignity exception is a means to defend oneself and not to protect oneself.