Is Childhood Obesity Abusive?

Recently, an eight year old boy in Cleveland was taken from his parents by child services as result of neglect. However, this is not the usual form of neglect that is occurring. Child services took custody of the child because he was over 200 pounds, a weight which the services deem as too much for any eight year old. They came in a took the child from his home, and now he and his mother only see each other once a week for two hours. But is this really what is right. Child services saw it as a neglect case, but the article makes it seem as if the mother was truly trying her best to help her child and reduce his weight. She stated that she had enrolled him in a local Healthy Kids, Healthy Weight program as one way in which he could lose weight, but she said that everything that she tried just couldn't do enough to help him to lose a significant amount of weight, and now he has been taken from her custody because of it.

Mary Williams, the author of this source, uses a somewhat strange method of writing this article. She employs a sort of question/answer strategy, but it is not an interview in any way. For instance, she starts her article by asking, "Is childhood obesity child abuse?" This question is able to appeal to the ethos of a reader, as it truly questions the ethical root of the problem. She then goes on to explain her answer to the question as well as the details of the problem at hand. Later, she employs this technique at other times, seemingly asking the reader what they think about certain details of the story and then answering them from her own ideas. In this way, the article seems very opinionated, as there are countless examples of Williams own opinions on the matter at different times in the article. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing, as it is able to pose an argument, as some people may disagree with Williams' opinion, which could lead to a more widespread debate over this childhood obesity problem.