Education and support have been thrown out the window in favour of control and over-regulation:
Authorities in Victoria are now using concerns about extreme obesity as justification for removing children from the care of their parents.
The Department of Health Services has removed at least two children from their parents’ care this year over the issue.
Associate Professor John Dixon, from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, says the number is expected to rise in the coming years.
“We’ve got to understand that as the waistlines of our kids grow, we’re going to have these extreme case of obesity,” he told News Breakfast.
Professor Dixon says sometimes removing the child is the best option.
“It’s not the obesity itself that would lead to a child being removed from their home, but it would be a range of circumstances that would make it difficult for that child to be managed in the best way at home,” he said.
“[Obesity can be the result of a] whole range of environmental issues, the food, the lack of transport, all sorts of things.
“But it also can be symptomatic of dysfunctional circumstances… where there’s problems; mental illness, siblings with disabilities, that really make family life for some of these children very complex indeed, and produce that rare circumstance where they may be better off out of home for a while.
“Thinking of the rights of the child, the best interests of the child, if it’s counterproductive to be at home, then in very rare circumstances that child may be best off not at home.”
Click here to read my post ‘Considered Too Obese to Keep His Kids‘.
Tags: Associate Professor John Dixon, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Childhood Obesity, Education, Goevrnment control, he rights of the child and obesity, Parenting, Removing children because of obesity, Removing children from parents care, sometimes removing the child is the best option, The Department of Health Services
Topical Teaching 
August 18, 2012 at 5:55 am |
If as stated by professor Dixon that obesity is the only issue to remove kids from home then it is acceptable. Though in human society the responsibility of taking care of a child is given to the parents, still it is the fundamental duty of the whole society that whether a child is being properly cared or not. But the best option in my view is to penalize the parents by other methods like community service.