Discussion of an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has been making the rounds on the Internet, but what do you think: should dangerously obese children be removed from their parents’ custody?
It’s a compelling argument. The article I’ve linked above lists several instances where obesity directly led to the death of a child. And governments already remove children from families for other food-related problems, namely lack of food.
But I imagine, in most cases, these children are not being willfully neglected or abused. These parents do not set out to harm their children the way an adult who beats a child or purposefully withholds food does. I would assume that the vast majority of children who are morbidly obese are that way because they are eating the food their parents provide, which is probably the best they can provide: cheap, plentiful junk food.
To my way of thinking, before the government starts condemning parents for the obesity epidemic in children, it should take a good hard look at the policies it espouses that make this not only possible but almost a foregone conclusion in some cases.
Because of the way the Farm Bill is set up, our government subsidizes corn syrup. Sugar has a lobby. Dairy has a lobby. Beef has a lobby. Vegetables and fruit do not, and subsequently, they get little or no subsidies.
I read recently, for example, that the WIC packages now contain one kind of fresh vegetable: carrots. Why? Because the carrot people formed a lobby. WIC packages are supposed to help provide vital nutrition to pregnant women, infants and children, but even now, the only fresh produce they include is carrots.
There is much talk about “food deserts” in inner cities, but I guarantee you that if things like fresh apples, carrots, and broccoli were less expensive than Doritos and Twinkies, they would find their way into the convenience stores that feed our inner cities. If the corn in the Doritos and the corn syrup in the Twinkies wasn’t so heavily subsidized by our government, they might be.
I am all for educating people and for some sort of intervention when a child becomes dangerously obese. But I also think that if our government wants to help this problem, they should take something like the physicians’ oath: “First, do no harm…”
