This is a most disturbing story.
Citing the need to protect children’s health, government authorities in England and Wales are seriously considering the most dire of actions, removing the most obese children from their parents’ homes in order to protect them from heart disease, diabetes and other dangerous diseases.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents 400 councils in England and Wales, predicted social services teams would have to take drastic action to improve the health of seriously overweight children.
Social workers have only become involved very rarely in such cases, considering the issue is best tackled by parents.
But the LGA warned that social services might have to treat very fat children as victims of “parental neglect” – just as malnourished children are.
It predicted that social services would have to intervene “more and more” with obese children. It added that councils would have to take action against parents who put their children’s health at risk, with the ultimate sanction of taking the fattest boys and girls into care.
The LGA said Britain was fast becoming the “obesity capital of the world” and the increasing weight of the average citizen was pushing up council tax bills.
I find this response alarming. It is well-intentioned but potentially very dangerous. Obesity is a major health problem, without question. But the proposed actions single out a health condition not just for its risks but for its visibility, while those with less visible problems skate by. For example, what about a child who is thin despite a high-fat, high-meat, junk food diet that appears to be the source of his or her gall bladder and kidney disease. Do those parents escape the long arm of the law because their child’s genetic makeup keeps him or her slender?
Definitely food for thought.
