Since the story was reported last week by The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, people have been weighing in on both sides.
County officials cited “medical neglect and the possibility of future health problems for their action. Lawyers for the mother say the county “overreached.”
The action raises a ton of questions.
Does an 8-year-old weigh that much because his mother lets him eat too many cookies, or could there be genetic factors involved?
The mother did not wish to be identified, but in one interview it was mentioned that she and the child’s father both were overweight.
And that she had enrolled him in a hospital program for obese children, which helped him lose weight that he has since gained back.
Do the physical health benefits of separating a child from his mother outweigh the emotional impact?
A teenage girl who was taken away from her mother a decade ago when she was a 90-pound 3-year-old has an opinion about that.
“They say it’s for the well-being of the child, but it did more damage than any money or therapy could ever do to fix it,” Anamarie Regino said in an ABC News interview earlier this year.
“To get better, you need to be with your family, instead of being surrounded by doctors.”
Anamarie didn’t improve at all in foster care, and she was returned to her parents. She later was diagnosed with a genetic predisposition.
“Well, state intervention is no guarantee of a good outcome, but to do nothing is also not an answer,” responds a Harvard pediatrics professor who has written that “state intervention may serve the best interests of many children with life-threatening obesity.”
But at what weight should the state intervene? At 175 pounds? 150? 125?
“A 218-pound 8-year-old is a time bomb,” a professor of bioethics conceded in an interview with The Plain Dealer.
“But the government cannot raise these children. A third of kids are fat. We aren’t going to move all of them to foster care. We can’t afford it and I’m not sure there are enough foster parents to do it.”
And, even if there were enough foster parents to take in overweight children, would there be any left over for the children at risk for future health problems because they’re inhaling their parents’ cigarette smoke?
Contact D.L. Stewart at dlstew_2000@yahoo.com.
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