US pediatrician suggests government should take obese children away from their parents

Tuesday, July 19, 2011 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: obese children, government intervention, health news

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(NaturalNews) A pediatrician in Boston named David Ludwig has been sharply criticized over the past week for suggesting that obese children might be taken away from their parents by state authorities for their own safety. In his article, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, he explains that taking these children away from their natural parents and putting them in foster care might, as a "last resort," be the most ethical choice.

His article expresses concern about the over-use of bariatric surgery on children and teens, and he's looking for an alternative solution that would help these children avoid surgery, which is dangerous and sometimes even deadly. His suggestion that the state might take these children away from their parents in some cases, however, strikes many people as over-the-top outlandish, especially given the truth that state foster care workers are, for the most part, obese people themselves!

Dr. Ludwig is a practicing physician as Boston's Children's Hospital, where he no doubt sees an endless stream of obese children come and go. He is also a recipient of grant money from the National Institutes of Health.

The article published in JAMA is entitled, "State Intervention in Life-Threatening Childhood Obesity". Its authors are Lindsey Murtagh, JD, MPH, and David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD.

Here are some of the highlights of the article, as reprinted from JAMA:

• "Ubiquitous junk food marketing, lack of opportunities for physically active recreation, and other aspects of modern society promote unhealthful lifestyles in children. Inadequate or unskilled parental supervision can leave children vulnerable to these obesigenic environmental influences."

(I completely agree. Dr. Ludwig is absolutely right about this point.)

• "...poor parenting is analogous to secondhand smoke in the home..."

This is starting to get into dangerous territory that could justify the state kidnapping children who don't offer "proper parenting." By this logic, many parents who engage in home schooling could also be targeted, especially if they don't like their children to receive vaccines or chemotherapy.

• "Because of the poor outcome of conventional treatment for pediatric obesity, bariatric surgery has become increasingly considered for adolescents with type 2 diabetes. However, the long-term safety and effectiveness of this invasive procedure in adolescents remains unknown, and serious perioperative and long-term morbidity and mortality have been reported. As an alternative therapeutic approach, placement of the severely obese child under protective custody warrants discussion. "

At least he's not calling for it to be a mandatory policy. But he is calling for "discussion" of the issue, and that's where these things always start. He goes on to state that doctors in many states are required to contact Child Protective Services and "tattle" on the parents of obese children, resulting in those children being taken away by CPS workers:

• "...mandated reporter laws may obligate physicians to contact child protective services in the cases of children for whom chronic parental neglect has resulted in severe weight-related health complications."

• "State intervention may serve the best interests of many children with life-threatening obesity, comprising the only realistic way to control harmful behaviors. ...In severe instances of childhood obesity, removal from the home may be justifiable from a legal standpoint because of imminent health risks and the parents' chronic failure to address medical problems."

Pay special attention to that last quote. In it, he reasons that using guns ("removal from the home" must always be done by men with guns) to take children away from their parents if those parents fail to "address medical problems." Well, gee, under this logic, the states could also kidnap children if the parents don't have them all vaccinated.

It's a dangerous slippery slope when you start calling for state intervention in families. Tearing families apart almost never results in a positive outcome. In fact, statistics show that children are many times more likely to be sexually abused while under foster care than they ever were with their original families.

This doctor at least seems open to other solutions

Notably, Dr. David Ludwig isn't outright calling for the state to take away obese children en masse. Not yet, anyway. In fact, he describes such actions as something of a "last resort" and clearly talks about the truth that foster care in no way guarantees a better health outcome. (He has no idea, actually, of how terrible foster care can really be...)

More importantly, he does seem to hint at some solutions that could avoid the whole situation when he says:

"Ultimately, government can reduce the need for such interventions through investments in the social infrastructure and policies to improve diet and promote physical activity among children."

There is a lot of truth in this statement. And yet it doesn't go quite far enough. Allow me to explain, in blunt, uncensored language, what really needs to happen in America if we are to save our children from runaway obesity and diabetes.

Why I oppose state medical intervention into the privacy of families

And in the mean time, I want to be clearly on the record saying that I completely oppose state intervention in families for "medical reasons." We've already seen states POISON teenagers with chemotherapy (at gunpoint, essentially) while charging their natural parents with kidnapping for trying to protect their own children from out-of-control cancer doctors (https://www.naturalnews.com/019617.html).

We've also seen states go crazy and threaten parents with jail time for not vaccinating their children (https://www.naturalnews.com/022267.html). We also watched Maryanne Godboldo charged with multiple felony crimes for merely trying to prevent her own daughter from being kidnapper by state authorities who were trying to drug her with mind-altering psychotropics (https://www.naturalnews.com/032091_Maryanne_G...).

The track record of states intervening in families is a terrible one. And I don't even have the space in this story to get into the more jaw-dropping truths about Child Protective Services -- an organization that is heavily engaged in child trafficking and so-called "white slavery" (the selling of children to the wealthy elite who use them as objects of perverted stimulation, so to speak). (http://thetruthproject.us/2007/05/24/dyncorp...)

Real solutions to our nation's obesity epidemic

What we need now are real solutions that seek to end our nation's obesity epidemic at the source: The food and media companies that peddle poison to the population.

Here's my action item wish list of steps I'd love to see take place to protect our children's future:

STEP ONE: Form an armed citizens' brigade of fed-up parents to march into the headquarters of all the processed junk food companies and fast food companies that push onto our children high-fructose corn syrup, MSG, aspartame, artificial food colors and all the other synthetic chemical additives that destroy human health. Make citizens' arrests of all the corporate CEOs and top executives at these companies, which should include Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's, Burger King, etc. If they resist, charge them with resisting arrest, of course!

STEP TWO: Hold public trials where these corporate CEOs face charges of poisoning the population with their toxic, refined, nutrient-depleted junk food products that promote degenerative disease and have crippled our nation's economy through runaway health care costs.

STEP THREE: While all this is going on, have the armed citizens' brigade march into the executive offices of all the mainstream media outlets that advertise and promote all this crap food. Arrest their CEOs for conspiracy to engage in the mass poisoning of our children by promoting toxic junk foods. Charge them with felony crimes and hold public trials for them as well. Send a message that any company caught promoting processed junk foods, sodas or obesity-causing products will be targeted for citizens' arrest. Yes, even those who routinely advertise obesity-promoting foods are GUILTY of conspiracy to harm our children.

STEP FOUR: Make it publicly known that any company engaged in the promotion or production of obesity-inducing synthetic chemicals or highly-refined food ingredients will be targeted for arrest and prosecution by the armed citizens' brigade; sort of a "People's Army" of armed parents who are fed up with the corruption and the mass poisoning of their children and who are willing to enforce common law to protect our children from criminal corporate CEOs in the food industry and the mainstream media.

These four steps, of course, may seem entirely unlikely to happen right now. But there will be a day in the not-so-near future when society as we know it collapses under economic bankruptcy, and justice will be dealt out by local groups of concerned citizens who adhere to common law (and common sense!) rather than the perverse and outdated federal laws that protect all the world's largest and most evil corporations.

When the People take back their power to govern their own lives, you can bet there will be citizens' law enforcement groups that will do what is necessary to protect their children from the mass poisoning of the food supply that has been allowed under the FDA and the obscenely corrupt U.S. federal government.