Two Harvard researchers say that parents who let their kids get super obese should lose custody. And while the editorial team at The Onion is probably kicking themselves for not coming up with this idea first, the opinion piece by Dr. David Ludwig and Lindsey Murtagh was published in the lofty Journal of the American Medical Association. The duo writes that "even relatively mild parenting deficiencies" like filling the pantry with junk food or setting a lazy, couch-sitting example, "may contribute to the child's weight problem."
The authors say that getting shipped off to a foster family is less ethically dubious than performing obesity surgery on America's chubby youth. And since our network of social services has been wondering how to use all of its excess resources, everybody wins. The dissenting commentary has already begun. Again, somehow, this is all Jamie Oliver's fault.
· State Intervention in Life-Threatening Childhood Obesity [JAMA via Atlantic]
· Should Parents Lose Custody of Super Obese Kids? [AP]
· Obesity Alone Is No Reason to Remove Kids From Home [MSNBC]
[Image: The Simpsons/Fox]