Childhood obesity and the question of parental liberty

Journal of Social Philosophy

Volumn 35, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 288-303

  Lotz, Mianna ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34247659976     PISSN: 00472786     EISSN: 14679833     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9833.2004.00233.x     Document Type: Article

References (21)

1. Cynthia L. Ogden, Richard P. Troiano, Ronette R. Briefel, Robert J. Kuczmarski, Katherine M. Flegal, and Clifford L. Johnson, "Prevalence of Overweight among Preschool Children in the United States, 1971-1994", Paediatrics 99, no. 4(April 1997):1-7, at 1, available at
2. cited in Sachiko T. St. Jeor et al., "Family-Based Interventions for the Treatment of Childhood Obesity", Journal of the American Dietetic Association 102, no. 5(May 2002):640-44.
3. One recent Dutch study found that female nonsmokers who are obese at forty years of age live an average 7.1 years less than women of normal weight, while obese men die an average of 5.8 years earlier than nonobese men. Reported in Michael Bradley, "Obese at 40? Expect a Fat Chance of a Long Life", The Age Newspaper, January 8, 2003. The figures almost double for smokers.
4. E. E. Calle, C. Rodriguez, K. Walker-Thurmond, and M. J. Thun, "Obesity and Mortality from Cancer in a Prospectively Studied Cohort of U. S. Adults", New England Journal of Medicine 348(April 24, 2003):1625-38.
5. A. J. Hill and E. K. Silver, "Fat, Friendless and Unhealthy: 9-Year Old Children's Perception of Body Shape Stereotypes", International Journal of Obesity 19(1995):423-30.
6. K. K. Davison and L. L. Birch, "Weight Status, Parent Reaction, and Self-Concept in Five-Year-Old Girls", Pediatrics 107(2001):46-53.
7. R. S. Strauss, "Childhood Obesity and Self-Esteem", Pediatrics 105, no. 1 (January 2000), available at .
8. Cara B. Ebbeling, Dorota B. Pawlak, and David S. Ludwig, "Childhood Obesity: Public Health Crisis, Common Sense Cure", Lancet 360(August 10, 2002):473.
9. This is achieved, for example, by the childhood immunization programs implemented in countries like New Zealand and Australia. For an interesting discussion of the ethical issues relating to childhood immunization strategies, see Tim Dare, "Mass Immunisation Programmes: Some Philosophical Issues", Bioethics 12, no. 2(1998):125-49.
10. The insidious relationship between poverty and obesity is documented in Gregory Critser, Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003). This highlights the need-which is absolutely vital-to understand the problem of childhood obesity as a social rather than an individual problem.
11. This draws on David Archard's summary of the position in "Child Abuse: Parental Rights and the Interests of the Child", Journal of Applied Philosophy 7, no. 2(1990):183-94, at 185.
12. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, in Utilitarianism, ed. Mary Warnock (Glasgow: Collins, 1979), 238-39.
13. See, for example, Gerald Dworkin, "Intention, Foreseeability, and Responsibility", in New Directions for Responsibility, ed. Ferdinand Schoeman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988);
14. and Philippa Foot, "Morality, Action and Outcome", in Morality and Objectivity, ed. Simon Blackburn (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985).
15. Exemptions from anti-obesity programs could be obtainable on medical grounds, in the case of, say, genetic disorders or where obesity is a side effect of some medically necessary medication. We may also want to investigate the moral grounds for providing for an exemption on cultural grounds. A case may be able to be made that it is legitimate to protect certain cultural meanings associated with obesity, namely, clan status, affluence, and well-being, such as in the case of many Pacific Islands cultures. BBC News recently cited a 2001 report prepared by the International Obesity Taskforce for the triennial Commonwealth health ministers meeting in New Zealand as noting that that "[t]he prevention and treatment of obesity in the Pacific is also made difficult by the traditional cultural notion that 'bigness' is a sign of wealth and power" (available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/ 1682477.stm).
16. Charles Fried, An Anatomy of Values: Problems of Personal and Social Choice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970), 141.
17. Ferdinand Schoeman, "Rights of Children, Rights of Parents, and the Moral Basis of the Family", Ethics 91(October 1980):6-19.
18. Jeffrey Blustein, "On the Doctrine of Parens Patriae: Fiduciary Obligations and State Power", Criminal Justice Ethics 2(Summer-Fall 1983):39-46, at 43 (emphasis added).
19. Some go a step further to argue that such familial bonds are "critical to every child's healthy growth and development." J. Goldstein, A. Freud, and A. J. Solnit, Before the Best Interests of the Child (London: Burnett, 1980), 10.
20. Francis Schrag, "Justice and the Family", Inquiry 19(Summer 1976):193-208.
21. Blustein, "On the Doctrine of Parens Patriae", 43.