I think the original editorial has been misrepresented. Here's a response by the doctor who wrote it:
Doc feels heat over foster care idea for obese kids
Opinion piece in medical journal has triggered a backlash
By Lauren Keiper
updated 7/15/2011 7:07:43 PM ET
BOSTON— Boston pediatrician David Ludwig,
the center of a media firestorm this week,
wants to set the record straight on his view
that a state should intervene in the most
extreme cases of child obesity.
Ludwig and co-author Lindsey Murtagh at the
Harvard School of Public Health triggered a
backlash with an opinion piece in a leading U.
S. medical journal about what could be done
about highly overweight youngsters.
They argued that when all other efforts failed,
a state should consider putting high-risk
obese kids in foster care, and said doing so
may be the more ethical choice that could
avert drastic measures like weight-loss
surgery.
Ludwig, of Boston's Children's Hospital, has
since responded to dozens of e-mails this
week from angry and terrified parents. Other
medical experts have questioned the rationale
of removing a child from an otherwise
functional and supportive family if they are
obese.
In his first interview since the backlash began,
Ludwig said the article was meant to promote
a dialogue on childhood obesity, which has
become a life-threatening problem for many
youngsters.
"It's absolutely understandable that if
someone with an obese child heard the
government could swoop in and take that
child away, (they would) be frightened and
outraged," Ludwig told Reuters. "I want to
emphasize that foster care should only be the
last resort when all other options have failed."
Story: Obesity alone is no reason to
remove kids from their homes
In his replies to parents, Ludwig has
provided copies of his opinion piece,
published this week in the Journal of the
American Medical Association, that says there
is a role for the state when it comes to helping
obese children, but removing them from a
home is very rarely the solution.
"It's just been heartbreaking to see how the
story has been wildly exaggerated by some of
the media, causing a great deal of pain and
suffering for people," Ludwig said.
With at least 20 million overweight and obese
children in the United States and some 2 m
illion of those kids at the very highest risk,
childhood obesity may be the "most important
threat that exists to this generation of children," he said.
But placing a youngster in foster care "should
absolutely not be an option" for most of the
highest risk cases.
And that is what Ludwig and Murtagh wrote in
the piece, he said. To prove his point and calm
the fury that has erupted, JAMA is making the
full text of the piece available free to the public
for a week at http://jama.ama-assn.
org/content/306/2/206.full.
Ludwig explained that state intervention could
include financial support to families, social
services, access to safe recreation areas and
even parenting courses to help manage a
child's uncontrolled eating habits.
In 99 percent of the most serious cases,
removing a child from a home is not an option.
Ludwig said that in over 15 years of treating
some 10,000 patients battling obesity he only
knows of one case where the child was taken
from parents.
"The ultimate answer to the obesity epidemic
is not to blame parents, it's to create a more
healthful and supportive society," Ludwig said.
"But until we get there, what do we do about
that 14-year-old, 400-pound (182 kg) child
who's not facing increased risk of illness 20
years from now, but who's facing life-
threatening complications today?" he said.
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.