Parents of morbidly obese children under fire

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An article published Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association says the state should intervene in cases of morbidly obese children. The authors of the article say that parents should lose custody in the most extreme cases of childhood obesity. This opinion has drawn criticism from several lawyers and members of the bioethics community.

Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the critics of the JAMA article. He argues that removing children from their homes is not a solution.”We know what the cure is for malnutrition, it’s feeding,” he told The Takeaway. “What we need to do is send people … and education into the house, we have to change that environment.”

In his commentary for MSNBC on the issue, Caplan says the focus should be on changing America’s food culture. “I am not letting parents off the hook. But, putting the blame for childhood obesity on the home and then arguing that moving kids out of homes where obesity reigns is the answer is short-sighted and doomed to fail. We need the nation to go on a diet together and the most important places to start are at the grocery store, schools and media.”

> Read article in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

> Read Arthur Caplan’s commentary.

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