Fascism is a political philosophy that places the nation and often race above the individual and directs a tendency toward strong autocratic control without query. Some researchers have taken an almost fascist stance toward obesity even suggesting that parents of extremely obese children lose custody for not controlling their kids’ weight.
In an opinion commentary published in yesterday’s Journal of the American Medical
Association (July 13, AMA. 2011;306(2):127), Lindsey Murtagh and his colleague, Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children’s Hospital Boston, believe that the state or government should have the authority to take children from parents if they are severely obese.
In a recent interview, lead author Murtagh, a lawyer and a researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health, said, “Despite the discomfort posed by state intervention, it may sometimes be necessary to protect a child.”
Titled “State Intervention in Life-Threatening Childhood Obesity,” the commentary specifically asserts, “Even relatively mild parenting deficiencies, such as having excessive junk food in the home or failing to model a physically active lifestyle, may contribute to a child’s weight problem. Typically, the potential harm involves an increased risk for obesity-related chronic disease later in life. “
The overt concern is that such a program would disproportionately impact African Americans, although such a purview has yet to be injected into neither the discussion nor the author’s commentary. African American women have the highest rates of being overweight
or obese compared to other groups in the United States, with about four out of five African American women considered to be overweight or obese. As of 2009, African Americans were 1.5 times as likely to be obese as non-Hispanic whites, with African American children being 30 percent as likely to be overweight than non-Hispanic whites according to 2007-2008 data.
States should have no authority in the workings of individual families with respect to such issues. The real factors are systemic, not individual, and stem from the disenfranchisement African Americans (most of the obese) have suffered historically. This suggestion, if it becomes policy, would be cognate to the separation of millions of African American families during slavery and border on fascism. –torrance t. stephens, ph.d.
