Childhood Obesity -- Should it be a crime?

[EternalEnigma21]

Originally Posted by Sheriff Gonna Getcha

Even assuming legislatures started enacting such legislation, how would it be enforced? Do you just start pulling heavy kids off the street and locking up their parents? How would authorities determine who is to blame for the overfeeding? Do they lock up both parents even though only one controls the child's diet? Do they lock up the parents when the child's obesity is due to the kind of food that the child is buying or getting from other places (friends' houses)?

that was my question. I don't think kids should be removed from homes (except in extreme cases) or that the parents should face jail time, but just as in homes where neglect is suspected, social services should be called in to monitor and attempt to help the situation while the threat of re-housing a child looms as motivation. My mother in law was a CASA for a while and, while I agree obesity is a big american problem, there are far worse things going on in homes than over eating that take up a lot of their time. Many times courts would allow children to stay in homes with open heavy drug use, and repeat offenders, even though she had lined up foster homes that were apparently more than capable and willing to offer the children a better life.