Here come the 'fat' police to put you on a diet
Real case, from the U.K.
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
Found via DrudgeReport.com, originally from The Sun Newspapers in the U.K. Headline is linked.
Fat police lock up Chris
Ordeal ... Chris was dragged off in tears by authorities
By JACQUI THORNTON
Health Editor
SOBBING 31-stone Chris Leppard was dragged off to a mental hospital against his will by meddling social workers and police.
Chris, 23, has been forcibly detained for a month because he cannot stop eating.
The authorities used powers normally used to detain mentally ill people who might harm themselves or others.
They locked him up despite the fact neither he nor his family wanted him to go. Last night Chris’s furious mother Anne said he has no mental problems and was winning his fight against the rare illness that compels him to eat.
Chris’s case was condemned by opponents of a nanny state. They asked whether others with life-threatening addictions could be next.
Mum Anne, 49, told of the agonising moment the ambulance came to take Chris — without warning.
She said: “Four people turned up and after some questions, said they were taking him away. Chris was really upset, crying, saying he didn’t want to go and that he wasn’t mental.
“We didn’t know they were coming to take him. He is being punished for being ill. He has a physical problem. He was working well towards losing weight.
“He asked social services to give him six months to prove he could lose weight. They didn't give him six days. I had stopped giving him money for food. For the first time in years we were getting somewhere. We had locked food cupboards, that was a big step.”
Chris, of Hastings, East Sussex, suffers from an incurable condition called Prader-Willi Syndrome. It means he can’t tell when his stomach is full and could eat so much that it will kill him.
East Sussex social services intervened after Chris appeared in a BBC1 documentary last month.
... more at linked article
What is the right thing here? Let this individual eat himself to death (which it seems he's been doing for years), with help from his family, friends and others? Or, have the state come in heavy handed (no pun intended) and intervene for the individuals own good?
These sort of cases scare me. They scare me because I want less, not more, government interference in the lives of individuals. Yet, there are plenty of times that I see people like this that obviously have problems and need help. Do we want government to step in and protect those that seem to be unable to protect themselves, or do we go with the non-interference and let the individuals rights over-rule our concerns?
Fat police lock up Chris
Ordeal ... Chris was dragged off in tears by authorities
By JACQUI THORNTON
Health Editor
SOBBING 31-stone Chris Leppard was dragged off to a mental hospital against his will by meddling social workers and police.
Chris, 23, has been forcibly detained for a month because he cannot stop eating.
The authorities used powers normally used to detain mentally ill people who might harm themselves or others.
They locked him up despite the fact neither he nor his family wanted him to go. Last night Chris’s furious mother Anne said he has no mental problems and was winning his fight against the rare illness that compels him to eat.
Chris’s case was condemned by opponents of a nanny state. They asked whether others with life-threatening addictions could be next.
Mum Anne, 49, told of the agonising moment the ambulance came to take Chris — without warning.
She said: “Four people turned up and after some questions, said they were taking him away. Chris was really upset, crying, saying he didn’t want to go and that he wasn’t mental.
“We didn’t know they were coming to take him. He is being punished for being ill. He has a physical problem. He was working well towards losing weight.
“He asked social services to give him six months to prove he could lose weight. They didn't give him six days. I had stopped giving him money for food. For the first time in years we were getting somewhere. We had locked food cupboards, that was a big step.”
Chris, of Hastings, East Sussex, suffers from an incurable condition called Prader-Willi Syndrome. It means he can’t tell when his stomach is full and could eat so much that it will kill him.
East Sussex social services intervened after Chris appeared in a BBC1 documentary last month.
... more at linked article
What is the right thing here? Let this individual eat himself to death (which it seems he's been doing for years), with help from his family, friends and others? Or, have the state come in heavy handed (no pun intended) and intervene for the individuals own good?
These sort of cases scare me. They scare me because I want less, not more, government interference in the lives of individuals. Yet, there are plenty of times that I see people like this that obviously have problems and need help. Do we want government to step in and protect those that seem to be unable to protect themselves, or do we go with the non-interference and let the individuals rights over-rule our concerns?
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