No Kid For You! - No parents for fat kids

Share |

One of the great challenges of governance is how far the government is to mingle in the lives of its citizens. According to one Harvard professor, he believes that if a parent allows their children to get too fat, too obese, that is grounds for the government to take away the kids. The assumption is that obesity constitutes a similar risk or condition to abuse.

I originally heard about this story from ABC news with an accompanying video piece. The story is controversial because the principle is correct in that having obese children is a bad thing for the child. In some ways I would agree that obesity, when it is not medically uncontrollable due to a glandular issue etc., is a serious health problem and is bad parenting. However, I also believe that the government is walking a very dangerous line in taking kids away when perhaps there is more to the story than a cold government can regulate. Parenting is a sacred responsibility. The church does not take children away because the parents don't teach the gospel in the home. In a spiritual parallel they are very similar. Obesity is not a permanent condition and can be remedied.