In some places, authorities does not only discourage overweight people from pregnancy, in some places, they discriminate them in adoption too.

A fat man in Leeds, England, has been denied the right to adopt a child because he is “morbidly obese,” He has been told to lose weight and get his BMI under 40 and then demonstrate the ability to maintain that loss over time, which as we know, is very unlikely. She tried to adopt a child a number of years ago and was told she had to lose weight first. She lost weight on a crash diet, they adopted the child, and then, as she stopped dieting, slowly regained the weight.

Furthermore, some countries (like Korea and China) have put official weight limits on adults wanting to adopt children from their countries. Here in the United States, weight limits on adoption seem to be much less common, although there are some stories that do exist.

Unfortunately, in other countries, obesity seems to be seen as a “legitimate” reason for denying adoption.

Why Restrict Fat People From Adoption?

Oftentimes, size bias in adoption is disguised under the dubious cover of being concerned “about the future of the child.” Authorities are afraid that:

* Fat people won’t live long enough to raise the adopted child to adulthood
* Fat parents will teach bad habits and make the adopted child fat and unhealthy too
* Fat parents are emotionally unhealthy and will make the child unhappy or emotionally unstable too

The authorities in these cases no doubt mean well, but the reasoning behind these mistaken policies is faulty at best. Bottom line, they reflect common prejudices about obesity rather than realistic problems.

First and foremost, adoption weight restrictions are based on the assumption that fat people are about to keel over at any moment and so will not live long enough to raise a child to adulthood, further scarring a child who has already suffered the loss of biological parents.

Sandy from Junkfood Science addresses the fallacies in this argument well; most fat people live plenty long enough to raise a child. Look around you; there are plenty of adults who have fat parents, and there are plenty of middle-aged and older fat people in our society. That alone should tell you that fat people live plenty long enough to raise a child to adulthood.

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