NY: Appeals Court Faults Removal of Obese Child From Parents
Joel Stashenko reports on Law.com:
Though not “ideal,” a couple’s efforts to control the weight of their obese daughter were made in good faith and did not justify a county agency’s repeated removal of the girl from her parents’ custody, an upstate New York appeals court ruled Thursday.
The custody case, Matter of Brittany T., 502131, concerned attempts by the Chemung County Department of Social Services to intervene in the upbringing of an obese girl. The matter began in 2003, when the agency filed petitions alleging the parents were neglecting their then-9-year-old daughter.
According to Thursday’s ruling, Brittany T.’s weight eventually exceeded 250 pounds, and she had several health problems associated with obesity, such as gallstones, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and insulin resistance. The girl “undoubtedly has an eating disorder,” the court noted Thursday . . .
Matter of Brittany T., No. 502131 (N.Y. App. Div. Feb. 28, 2008)