Childhood Obesity in the News

Childhood Obesity in the News

The ethical and legal aspect for families with obese children makes the news today. The question arises are parents ethically or legally bound and responsible for the increase epidemic of obese children. The following will discuss the ethical issues related to childhood obesity describe a few possible supported solutions and the facts for the solutions needed. The following will educate and facilitate new information from the news for a better understanding of the epidemic in society.

Obesity in the United States is an alarming epidemic. This obesity rate is at its highest among the younger generations (DeVries J. 2007). At least one out of three children in the United States today is obese. Besides obesity within families the ethical and legal issue arises. Who is responsible for the increase and how to best deal with the situation ethically. The problem of childhood obesity is the ethical dilemma, and the association between autonomy (Kersh, 2011). This means does the state pursue involvement with the parents or guardians to force and monitor children for safety and health to prevent obesity or does the state take a step back and just watch the situation. The ethical dilemma is one where is the state does nothing children can be in harm's way, and if the state intervenes the child could still be in harms way. Another ethical part is the parent rights and responsibilities to protect the child (Perryman, 2011). This would allow the family the ability not to change habits for the child and family habits also not changing. This is the ethical dilemma with parents with children of obese children and those concerned about the health and wellness of the child.

Another dilemma seen is the amount of foods that promote obesity and their availability to children. These foods, drinks, quick snacks, and fast food places are found everywhere including at schools. A step to reduce these current habits is eliminate the high sugar foods, and snacks from schools and at home. This one step could help reduce the intake of unhealthy foods and snacks causing obesity and promote weight loss. The family dynamics in today's household with television, and several sedentary games devices available promotes for a low activity setting (Perryman, 2011). Staying at home sedentary, eating unhealthy food and societal factors help promote the epidemic seen currently with the younger generation. A change in these factors could substantially reduce likeliness for obesity.

A few solutions that can impact, and change the current issue quickly could be reduce the sale of sugar added, fat added items at schools. These items would include soda, sweet snacks, and chips. The healthier eating habits during school could help with an increased ability to thrive in school. Another solution is by having children and parents get involved with a healthier eating habit and style (Kersh,