10.24.2009

If Government Doesn't Like You, It Will Take Your Kids

The limits to state power are disappearing fast. In Dundee City, United Kingom, a family was required to convene before a panel of social workers. The social workers, I mean the 'anointed ones', decided that the parents of the children were a little over weight, and therefore a danger to their own children. So for the sake of the children, they were taken away from their parents by the government.

Don't worry, the following quote from a Dundee City Council spokesman, should ease your fears:

"Councils will always act with the welfare and safety of children in mind and there can be many reasons for action being taken"

That makes me feel better. I just hope the council never decides that my religious faith is a danger to my children. But that wouldn't happen right? I mean government officials can always be trusted to do the right thing!

Below is the text of the article. The link can be found here. I include the link in case it is lost in the future.


'Fat Family' Children Taken From Parents

12:01pm UK, Thursday October 22, 2009
Kirsty Donald, Sky News Online

Seven children, including a newborn baby, have been taken from their overweight parents and put into care because of concerns over their welfare.

'Fat family' from Dundee
Some of the children, who cannot be identified, also have weight problems
The family from Dundee was split up by social workers following a meeting of the Children's Panel.
The youngsters include a girl born earlier this week at the city's Ninewells Hospital and taken from the arms of her 23 stone mother shortly afterwards.
The 40-year-old woman and her 53-year-old husband, who weighs around 18 stone, have not been named to protect the identity of their children.
Two of their kids, aged three and four, were taken into care earlier this year.
Now the other five, including the newborn and a 13-year-old boy who is said to weigh 16 stone, have been taken from their parents.
The local authority insisted it was not its policy to remove children from their family home solely on the basis of weight problems.

Councils will always act with the welfare and safety of children in mind and there can be many reasons for action being taken.
Dundee City Council spokesman
But the family's solicitor Kathleen Price has previously claimed obesity was the main reason for the children being taken from their parents.
She said the couple had not been given a fair hearing and had been "victimized".
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said: "Any decision about a child's situation is given full and careful consideration.
"In many cases social workers will have been providing a high level of professional and caring support to a family for many years in a bid to keep them together.
"However, the welfare and safety of a child or children is the over-riding priority and in some cases, despite the strenuous efforts of the agencies providing this support, the best option is for them to be looked after away from their home.
"Councils will always act with the welfare and safety of children in mind and there can be many reasons for action being taken."

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