News: Should Parents Lose Custody of Extremely Obese Kids? (legal, smart, children)
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Maybe in very extreme cases, where the child's life is in danger, but otherwise no. There have been parents who lost their children for failing to treat medical illnesses, and morbid obesity sounds like a medical illness to me. But why would a parent do this? Ignorance, lack of resources or help, or just don't give a damn? There are other factors that need to be considered besides the child's weight. Maybe the child has a loving family who just doesn't know how to help or what to do. That's where CPS or whatever agency can step in and help, and keep a family together instead of tearing it apart.
Last edited by AnnaNomus; 07-13-2011 at 08:54 PM..
Reason: typo
The government already has to much power over how we raise our children. I do not think that parents should cede authority over their children to the government. Lots of kids have problems and lots of parents have trouble coping with their kids problems. They do not ALL rise to a level that requires the government to step into the lives of ordinary families.
Suppose a child has a life threatening condition (immediately life threatening; not a chronic problem) that requires weight loss as part of the treatment. If parents do not provide medical treatment for their children then they should be taken away since that constitutes abuse. Other than that the government should not get involved.
Up to what age? I am from a family of 7 siblings. Most of us are tall and thin. The two youngest, however, are overweight, and have been on thyroid medicine most of their lives. They are treasured members of our family, and I know for a fact my parents fed them the same food, and sought medical advice when they gained weight, to little avail. They went from chubby, to fat, to obese.
There are far too many variables to make a blanket policy. I would like nutrition emphasized in the schools , because I think it's too late to change the mind set of my generation.
We're not just talking "Fat" --- it's about MORBID obesity. Children are afforded a certain level of protection from their parents in certain cases. It has to be this way. Stupid people breed --- and these poor kids never have a chance to select which parents they get. Too often kids are given tv and video games as babysitters. Parents would rather go to McDonald's than cook a meal at home, sit with their kids around the dinner table, and figure out what's going on in their lives.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's and while we weren't all a bunch of budding Victoria's Secret models, I really can't think of many kids I graduated HS with who were "fat", not to mention "morbidly obsese".
I see so many kids today who are really young and carrying a lot of extra weight, particulary for their young ages. When I was in school we had to pass some National physcial fitness test in gym ... I wonder if that is still the case, or if some group has challenged that in court based on discrimination grounds, like everything else.
I am not in the medical profession but I have heard the new stories about doctors indicating that obesity is the newest and greatest threat to our young people, and that the rates of heart disease and diabetes which haver been skyrocketing for the last 20 years will only go through the roof with the next round of kids who enter adulthood with awful eating habits and having a life long lack of physical activity. Being severely overweight brings a host of obvious health issues of heart disease and diabetes, but then there's also depression and cancers which might be triggered by excess fat, cholesterol, etc. Talk about sucking the life out of our already over burdened health care system.
No, I don't trust our government. But I also don't trust a lot of parents to protect their kids ... who are one day going to "lead" this country. Schools unfortunately have to deal with many issues, and the repercussions thereof, when things aren't dealt with at home. Morbid obesity is another one of them.
I have my thoughts on how kids should be raised. They should be kept skinny on restrictive diets, skimpy clothes, physical punishment and lots of outdoor physical exercise etc etc etc.
I do not think that the government should get too involved.
We obviously have some government involvement in our lives and every time some kid dies we ask where were the authorities.
The problem is where should the balance be?
Personally I lean away from too much government involvement and so even though I dispair at the fat kids I see, I also do not see that we should be doing any more than encouraging and educating and if some of them die early of a heart attack then so be it.
Some years ago a man wrote a letter to the editor of our paper after reading an article on obesity. He said he was a POW in WWII and that all they were given to eat in the camp was turnip soup and black bread. He suggested that people who are struggling with obesity go on the POW diet and that they would lose 60 pounds in no time.
I think that's a good idea. You know all those supposed FEMA camps that are supposed to exist, ready for the government to lock us all up? Let's find them, have the black helicopters pick up the fat kids and their fat parents, and we'll stick them all in the camps and feed them turnip soup and black bread until they learn their lesson.
I feel like government already infringes on the family and parental rights and the idea of them using obesity as another reason to remove children from their families homes is pretty scary. I believe the government already does a much worse job than the private sector and shudder to think we're really talking about government literally assuming responsibility for raising our children. Just look at the current foster care system for an example of how efficient the government is at raising our children for us.
This would also turn in to an industry providing a financial incentive to remove children from their homes to participate in state run "health" programs. Why dont they deregulate schools, delegate responsibility back to local communities and let us pool resources to reinstitute physical education and extracirricular sports rather than be sucked in to some kind of Orwellian government youth pogrom.
Another concern is how inefficiently beauracray imposes such programs. I can see the healthy kid from a good home who happens to be heavy being removed from a good home while dozens who could actually benefit languishing in homes where they literally do suffer from malnutrition and obesity.
Just a really bad idea.
Governments constantly create the impression of a crisis to justify expansion of federal powers. It's is always easy to judge the other guy but then how about when that other guy somehow becomes us?
Since I can't rep you again I'll copy you. I see it as more chipping away at the Constitution and that scares the jeebers out of me.
Besides we don't even like how the government runs the Postal Service. We're supposed to hand over children to them? Yes, Obesity is a major problem but I think we're smart enough to think of something besides Big Brother coming into our homes and deciding which children they are going to take away. *shudder*
Since I can't rep you again I'll copy you. I see it as more chipping away at the Constitution and that scares the jeebers out of me.
Besides we don't even like how the government runs the Postal Service. We're supposed to hand over children to them? Yes, Obesity is a major problem but I think we're smart enough to think of something besides Big Brother coming into our homes and deciding which children they are going to take away. *shudder*
In general I agree with Dew and maciesmom, however, there are obvious cases where the obesity has gone well beyond being a "fat kid". The second picture I posted is a pretty clear example of a case where some outside intervention may be necessary.
Overall, I don't think the kids should be handed over to go to government fat camp, but there are obvious issues that have gone beyond the ability of the family to control and some counseling and intervention would be appropriate.
This would inspire most people to call for CPS to intervene immediately:
This somehow isn't seen as something equally harmful:
http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content/StaticFile/jpg/2007/Feb/Week4/1505336.jpg (broken link)
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