Should Gov Be Able To “Repossess” Obese Children?

Unbelievable. This Boston area pediatrician wrote that the State should be able to swoop in and take a child away from their parents and put that child into foster care … if that child is obese.


CLICK HERE to see the article that the Journal of the American Medical Association has made available for free for a week.  the He has  

In this article, the baby doc tries to walk back his opinion that we should be able to repossess people’s children when they are too fat, by saying that we shouldn’t freak out … but when kids are too fat, and nothing else works, they should be taken away from their parents. 


This effectively puts “childhood obesity” into the category of “abuse“. 


But hey, doesn’t that mean that adult obesity of also a form of abuse? Like self-abuse? Doesn’t that mean that this self-inflicted condition should be treated as a form of mental instability? 


I know, I know, I’m gleefully sliding down the slippery slope of “reductio ad absurdum“, but since this pediatrician started an absurd commentary with an absurd solution, I figured that I was in good company.   


Of course, the whole notion is just silly and will quickly go away … in the mean time, realistic approaches to fix childhood obesity should be what we focus on. However, I think the reason we see crazy proposals like these is precisely because we have run out of options and just don’t have any solid solutions on the table. 


U.S. pediatrician feels heat over child obesity idea | Reuters

For more information: Click here to visit Will Clower’s website.