UK Weighs Taking Fat Kids From Parents

Dangerously chubby children may end up in social service system
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 16, 2008 5:47 AM CDT
UK Weighs Taking Fat Kids From Parents
British authorities predict that they will have to intervene more and more to deal with dangerously overweight children, and that the fattest ones may need to be removed from their homes.   (Getty Images (by Event))

Local government leaders in Britain warn that they may need to take drastic action to protect the health of dangerously overweight children—including taking them away from their parents, the Independent reports. They predict that a million British children will be clinically obese within four years, and that the social service system may have to take charge of caring for children in the worst cases.

"Councils are increasingly having to consider taking action where parents are putting children's health in real danger," said a public health spokesman. "Councils would step in to deal with an undernourished or neglected child, so should a case with a morbidly obese child be different?"
(More United Kingdom stories.)

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