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When do parents’ rights become parents’ wrongs?

Dedicated visitors to Calorie Lab may recall a post a few months back about several cases in Great Britain in which young children have been found to be so grossly overweight, and their parents so unable or unwilling to trim their weight through diet and/or exercise, that the kids have been taken in hand by authorities and placed in the care of state health agencies.

This naturally stirred up a controversy in the UK over the question: at what point does the government have the legitimate authority to usurp the rights of parents on behalf of the child’s “best interests?”

It may also be recalled that we predicted in that post that it was only a matter of time until this thorny little issue popped up right here in the states. Well, the time is up. In South Carolina, Alexander Draper, age 14, has been removed from the custody of his mother, Jerri Gray, because despite officials’ urgings, she has not taken action to lower his weight, which is a staggering 555 pounds.

Alexander has been placed in a foster home. And Ms. Gray has been arrested and charged with criminal neglect.

Mind you, this isn’t the first time that local authorities in the states have intervened in families with extremely overweight offspring. Similar cases in Indiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Texas have led courts in those states to find that morbid obesity in a minor child falls under the legal heading of medical neglect. Mostly, this merely resulted in orders to the parents to get nutritional counseling and enroll the child in a serious workout program.

But criminal charges were filed against parents in cases in Indiana and California, and while nobody was sentenced to serve time in jail, we have clearly crossed the red line: the point at which failing to prevent your children from becoming morbidly obese is a violation of the law. This is tricky and possibly treacherous ground to be treading as a society.

Almost everyone agrees that criminal charges should be the very last resort, applied in only the most extreme cases. But if 555 pounds at age 14 doesn’t meet that test, what does? Here are just some of the issues raised by the Jerri Gray case.

If there are clear-cut answers, we haven’t found them yet

Some parents, especially single parents, haven’t the time or ability to control their child’s food intake or lack of exercise. Gray says that she often had to work second and third shifts at her job to get by financially, which prevented her from being home to supervise Alexander — who evidently found a number of alternate food sources when mom was not around — and did not leave her sufficient time to prepare nutritious meals, falling back on fast food instead.

South Carolina officials say that Gray was given opportunities to get Alexander into treatment programs, which she failed to do; Gray says she couldn’t afford the programs.

On the one hand, being short of time and money should not be a crime. On the other, the health of a minor child is the parent’s legal responsibility, and in this case, a home situation was allowed to develop that was “serious and threatening to his health” and placed him at “an unreasonable risk of harm,” thus fitting the legal definition of criminal child neglect.

But most laws covering child neglect require that the child’s health be “in imminent danger,” and however unhealthy Alexander’s weight may be, the various serious health problems that will certainly result from his condition won’t become pronounced and chronic for a decade or so.

Can parents be charged with harm that will only be highly likely in the future? After all, Alexander could experience a revelation and become a marathoning vegetarian. Unfortunately, the odds are that he will become a diabetic and heart patient instead.

Jerri Gray says that a mother can certainly not be of help to her child if the child is taken from her, and that keeping the family together should be the highest priority, and it’s hard to argue with that. Then again, she has already taken her case to the media with an appearance on “The Today Show,” and cannot comment for publication because of an exclusive contract she has signed to film a documentary about her case, which to some observers might be reason to question just what her priorities are.

The one inescapable conclusion is that the obesity-as-child-neglect issue is here, and getting increased attention, and will probably make only the cable news channels and a number of lawyers very happy before it is finally settled.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 and is filed under Childhood obesity, Kids and families. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.