State should take obese kids from parents: US doctors

The government should have the right to remove severely obese children from their parents' home and place them in foster care, two US doctors argued in a controversial editorial published Wednesday.

"State intervention may serve the best interests of many children with life-threatening obesity, comprising the only realistic way to control ," wrote Lindsey Murtagh of the Harvard School of Public Health and David Ludwig of Children's Hospital in Boston.

"In severe instances of , removal from the home may be justifiable from a legal standpoint because of imminent health risks and the parents' chronic failure to address medical problems."

Some two million children in the United States are considered severely obese with a at or above the 99th percentile, the doctors wrote.

"Obesity of this magnitude can cause immediate and potentially irreversible consequences, most notably type 2 diabetes," they said.

Child abuse laws have long addressed situations in which children are starved or neglected, but "only a handful of states, including California, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas, have legal precedent for applying this framework to overnourishment and severe obesity."

Murtagh, who is also a lawyer by training, and Ludwig said that while it may be an undesirable option, placing a child in temporary foster care could allow better habits to take root and avoid the risks of .

"Although removal of the child from the home can cause families great emotional pain, this option lacks the physical risks of bariatric surgery."

The opinion piece in the made waves in the medical community and US media, and JAMA issued a statement pointing out that the piece did not reflect the institution's view.

"This commentary does not reflect policy or opinion of the American Medical Association (AMA) or JAMA. The content of this commentary is solely the responsibility of the authors," it said.

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Mauricio
5 / 5 (2) Jul 13, 2011
"Although removal of the child from the home can cause families great emotional pain, this option lacks the physical risks of bariatric surgery."

no causes pain, it destroys the family.... good idea coming from "doctors" as they seek profit in every corner. They are probably thinking on how that removal of the children from their family will create severe distress and they will be psychiatric patients forever and ever, good business right there....
Mauricio
5 / 5 (1) Jul 13, 2011
how come these doctors do not think on changing the system that is making people so fat in the first place.

Is not more HUMANE to change the content of TV than to destroy families? people spend 7 hours everyday watching TV!!!! and what they see? fast food commercials all the time! And TV programs that promote unhealthy and dysfunctional behavior.

Oh, yes, I know what they would have to say, because it has been said to me in many contexts: "that is too difficult to change". It is easier to go and harm the few working families in the entire country!

These doctors are probably the children of the doctors of few decades back that proposed brain lobotomies and electric-convulsive therapies to have good law abiding citizens (i.e., lambs).

what can of people provide that advice? I am VERY glad I don't know those "doctors"
ROBTHEGOB
1 / 5 (1) Jul 13, 2011
It would be far better to outlaw the use of corn syrup in our food supply, since this is the biggest factor in the current "epidemic" of obesity. Doctors should quit avoiding the real causes of this problem, and demand an end to the corn syrup pollution of our foods.
eachus
not rated yet Jul 13, 2011
How about removing the children from the care of these doctors and putting them in the hands of doctors who might try to cure the patients?

If the doctors need a clue, there is obviously some infection they are not seeing, that encourages the patient to add weight so that the body can support more viral (or whatever) load.

Yes, sometimes there are other causes. I put on 150 lbs a few years ago taking Vioxx. I'm slowly getting back to that weight but it is hard.
ShotmanMaslo
3 / 5 (2) Jul 14, 2011
Legally and ethically, this is justified, some of these parents are not fit to raise children, and it is no different than child abuse. But it should be used as a last measure when other options have failed.
ArtflDgr
3 / 5 (2) Jul 15, 2011
Joseph Mengele was a good social engineer wanting only to change the social outcomes of children by experimenting on them. the good in that sentence is sarcasm, but may i ask what is different between him and the other social engineers making up things to try on kids to get them to be different as they grow up?
zafouf
not rated yet Jul 18, 2011
I agree that if the children are seriously obese because of a bad home environment and their parents won't change, it may be a better idea to take them out. There's often some kind of relationship based on food=love etc., in severe obesity.
But they'd better have a really good way of screening for other causes of obesity. Other causes may not be very common but it would be awful to split up a family if a child has a rare leptin deficiency, say.
Shootist
1 / 5 (1) Jul 18, 2011
There really are only two types of people in the world; those who wish to control the actions of others, and those who have no such desire.

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