Children could be taken away from their parents if they become too fat under a controversial proposal by an Australian doctor.Just how, might I ask, do they define obese? It's not clear from the article, but I would bet dollar-to-doughnuts that it's some form of BMI, which incidentally doesn't take body fat into account, which to me is just a bad idea. Big boned? Have more muscle mass? Too bad! Your BMI is too high! Go on a diet! And if you don't, we'll take you out of the hands of your parents and starve you for a while!
With 1-in-4 children in Australia overweight or obese, Dr. Shirley Alexander, of the Children's Hospital at Westmead, wants parents to be disciplined in "extreme cases" when their child becomes too overweight.
Under the proposal, child protection agencies would be called in to seize a child when parents repeatedly failed to address diet problems.
"We argue that in a sufficiently extreme case, notification of child protection services may be an appropriate professional response," Alexander said.
In one case welfare authorities were forced to intervene when a 4-year-old girl stood 3-and-a-half-feet tall and weighed about 88 pounds. The girl watched TV for six hours a day and had tantrums when denied food.
Alexander said despite the efforts of health workers, a "family-focused" program failed to stop or reverse the child's weight gain.
She said child protection authorities were notified, and the child was put on a diet and physical activity program that had her losing weight.
The article isn't clear just how the weight loss was achieved, but I guarantee you it was what they call a "healthy diet" that likely has insufficient protein and other nutrients resulting in a weight loss to be sure, but not a healthy weight loss.
They also have the qualifier in the above article: "in a sufficiently extreme case." Who determines it? Are the neighbors now going to be a watchdog, required by law to call CPS when the kid next door looks a bit puffy? Will they have scales in school so they can flag the overweight? What's next? Blood tests for cholesterol? Forced blood glucose before the start of school to diagnose diabetes? Where does this end?
This kind of silliness always reminds me of a quote from C.S. Lewis:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
im going to be taken away from my parents for months
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