It truly saddened my heart to read this
news item from The Age in Melbourne, Australia
VICTORIAN welfare authorities have begun using extreme obesity as a
reason to support children being separated from their parents - and experts
predict more cases, as the population gets fatter.
The Department of Human Services has cited obesity in at least two child
protection court cases this year.
One case involved a pre-teenage boy who weighed 110 kilograms and the
other a teenage girl whose waist circumference of 169 centimetres was greater
than her height. The department would not reveal the exact number of cases. Published 11 July 2012.
Obesity is not the sole reason for removal of the children from their
homes, but this case has brought forth the salient features of the
contributions of the society into the obesity.
You could say, the child was sitting in the room and eating and not
exercising that is why he became fat. Quantitatively it might be correct, but
do all children from the same suburb sit in the room and eat and not exercise?
The courts themselves and even the Physician in charge said: both the mother
and child are victims of the environment, it is the society that has created
this problem, both of them are under stress from a society which has become
individualistic and less caring. So it is not to put the blame on the mother or
the child. But the court is providing relief to the mother, by admitting that
neither she nor the clinic nor the doctor is capable of providing any sort of
attention with regard to his obesity. Can you imagine what is 169 cm waist
circumference? For those thinking in
inches, it is 66 inches, she is wider than tall! In the practice of Medicine,
we learn about extreme cases to know about the metabolism or dysfunction, and
these extreme cases makes us realize that before it is too late we have to turn
our attention from the Clinic and Doctors to the Society as a whole as the
culprits
Reminds me very much of the famous words uttered by individuals in
another context and at another court:
I am not responsible.
If we are not responsible, each and every one of us, who is then
responsible? What is being lost is the solidarity one feels to other members of
the society. Have you ever wondered why Japan has very low obesity rates?
Why is obesity so high in English Speaking countries?
USA
UK
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
All the above societies have also turned more selfish, from Whitlam and
Trudeau to Iron Lady and Reagan.
I have always maintained Obesity is a Social Illness and the answers
have to come from the Society rather than Epidemiologists and Doctors and
Clinics.
It has made headlines around the world:
Le Monde.fr
Contacté
par le quotidien, un porte-parole du département des services humains qui a
rendu ces décisions a précisé que l'obésité ne pouvait être l'unique cause
entraînant le placement des enfants ajoutant que celle-ci pouvait être le
symptôme d'autres problèmes plus graves.
