The battle with issues of weight and health, particularly obesity, is usually associated with older Americans, or is often connected to long-standing medical conditions.
However, as obesity continues to grow in America, the timeline for the battle with excessive weight is reaching into childhood and the discussion now focuses on overweight kids. This is not just a burgeoning social issue; but has the likelihood of becoming a controversial legal one.
Recently, a provocative series of articles and commentary, coming from American and British experts, has started to argue that the state might need to intervene where the parents cannot control their children's weight. And, reports the Associated Press, these experts argue it might be better for the most extreme cases among these overweight kids to be placed in temporary foster care than to stay with parents or to undergo surgical procedures.
Currently, about 2 million U.S. children are considered "extremely obese" though most are not in imminent danger. However, the danger is looming. As first lady Michelle Obama pointed out in her national campaign, childhood obesity is a "public health crisis" because this is the first generation of Americans that is expected to have a shorter life expectancy than the generation before it.
The situation is particularly dire for Georgia. According to a 2009 report by the Trust for America's Health, about 37% of Georgia children ranging from age ten to seventeen are obese. The National Conference of State Legislatures more or less agrees with that ranking -- finding that a majority of the South has childhood obesity rates higher than 35.1%.
With those kinds of numbers floating around, any state-intervention to address super obese children will likely have the most impact in places like Georgia. It is therefore important for parents to be aware of their rights and responsibilities when it comes to their overweight kids, before they lose custody.
Finally, it is also important for divorced parents to recognize that childhood obesity will be given some weight in all discussions in court about the best interests of the children when it comes to custody.
Related Resources:
- Find a Family Law Attorney in Atlanta (Findlaw)
- Grounds for Terminating Parental Rights (Findlaw)
- Healthy Eating for Children (Healthy Eating)
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