Is obesity a reason to lose your child?
The state of North Carolina might take an overweight child into custody. According to the Star News Online, the seven year old, who weighed as much as 245 pounds recently, has been taken into custody and awaits a hearing.
The child’s knees are so damaged by his weight that he is going to have to undergo surgery. At issue is where the surgery will take place, with the mother arguing that it should be done closer to her home.
Is this fair? Is this right? Is this the act of a caring government, or is it Big Brother watching over you? To what extent do we really have the right to live, or mess up, our own lives? The Onion published a parody piece a few weeks ago about how parents are messing up children’s lives by not letting them watch too much television, etc. Funny stuf, but what if your belief of what is best for your child contradicts what the government believes is best? What about the girl taken into custody in Germany for being homeschooled, which is illegal in that country? Or mandatory HPV vaccinations for girls under the age of 18?
What do you think?
In general, I would be against children being taken into custody because of weight problems. This particular instance sounds like an extreme example where the child would no longer be able to function normally unless they get help.
I would like to know more about the case. Was the obesity caused by a medical condition (such a metabolic condition) or by poor diet and lack of exercise? Have the parents done anything to try to help the child get in shape? What sort of medical care do the parents have access to?
All in all, this is a thought-provoking example of how extreme the childhood obesity problem can get.
If a child is severely underweight, we remove children from a caregivers home.
If a child is severely overweight, we should too.
Both are forms of abuse, in one case of a caregiver feeding too little, when the caregiver knows it is harmful to the child.
Overfeeding, or feeding too much of the wrong, unhealthy food, when the caregiver knows it is harmful to the child, is no different.
Both forms of neglect or abuse should carry the same penalty.