UK Weighs Taking Fat Kids From Parents

Local government leaders in Britain warn that they may need to take drastic action to protect the health of dangerously overweight children—including taking them away from their parents, the Independent reports. They predict that a million British children will be clinically obese within four years, and that the social service system may have to take charge of caring for children in the worst cases.

"Councils are increasingly having to consider taking action where parents are putting children's health in real danger," said a public health spokesman. "Councils would step in to deal with an undernourished or neglected child, so should a case with a morbidly obese child be different?"
(More United Kingdom stories.)