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firecatI'm so inured to attacks on fat adults that they mostly only make me irritated these days, but this article in a Scottish news outlet suggesting that "parents of obese children should be prosecuted for neglect" (reported via Sandy Swarcz's JunkFoodScience blog here) makes me cry and feel frantic.
I'm not a parent and I'm not a fat child any more so why should I care? Because I imagine how much more terrified my parents would have been over my size (I was plump despite their sustained and intense efforts to make me thin) if they believed they could have had their child taken away, instead of "just" being shamed and pressured about having a fat child. Because I imagine what kind of life a fat child taken away from their family and raised in some kind of institution would have.
Although this is just some random doctor sounding off in a random news outlet, and there's no official legislation along these lines as yet, such government sanctioned kidnappings have been happening fairly regularly in the US. As a member of several fat acceptance organizations I hear about one every few months (when the parents seek help from the organization. I wonder how many parents don't seek help from the organization?). Sometimes I find out the outcome and sometimes not.
I'm not a parent and I'm not a fat child any more so why should I care? Because I imagine how much more terrified my parents would have been over my size (I was plump despite their sustained and intense efforts to make me thin) if they believed they could have had their child taken away, instead of "just" being shamed and pressured about having a fat child. Because I imagine what kind of life a fat child taken away from their family and raised in some kind of institution would have.
Although this is just some random doctor sounding off in a random news outlet, and there's no official legislation along these lines as yet, such government sanctioned kidnappings have been happening fairly regularly in the US. As a member of several fat acceptance organizations I hear about one every few months (when the parents seek help from the organization. I wonder how many parents don't seek help from the organization?). Sometimes I find out the outcome and sometimes not.
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no subject
Date: 14 Jun 2007 12:46 am (UTC)This part really got me:
Ercy Burgess brought a petition from the parents of students at La Mesa Elementary School to family members waiting outside the courtroom.
"We're hoping that they (the court) listen to us because we have been around them (the family),"
"The parents and children at the school know Anamarie and her grandmother Margaret Martinez because Anamarie's 8-year-old aunt attends the school, Burgess said. The petition was topped with a short note that said in Spanish that the neighbors support the family and have never seen Anamarie eat anything not allowed in her diet. It also said she has been treated with special love and care. The signatures of 83 people followed on a few pieces of notebook paper. "She should be home with her parents and her grandparents," Burgess said.