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Child Neglect: Where is the Line in the Sand Drawn?

By Janet Langjahr

A child welfare agency is breathing down their necks, threatening to remove their children.

They aren’t beating or starving their children.

Or leaving them unattended.

Why then?

The agency calls it medical neglect.

In one recent high profile case, hardly the first such case, the family refuses conventional medical treatment for religious reasons.

The child has cancer. A kind with an excellent prognosis with chemotherapy.

But the family’s religion frowns upon such treatment, preferring alternative, natural treatments.

And the boy and his mother go on the run … for a time.

When the boy’s condition worsens, they give in to the necessity of conventional treatment.

And the boy is allowed to stay with his parents.

In a second, lower profile case, a 14 year old child is obese, on the magnitude of 555 pounds.

To avoid a court hearing, this mother and son also go on the run.

And the mother is arrested for custodial interference.

Of course, it isn’t healthy for a child - or adult - to weigh over 500 pounds.

But is the child neglected? Should the child be removed from his or her family?

Are you following your pediatrician’s recommendations?

To the letter?

Is your child’s other parent keeping track?

Read more in this NewsWeek article: What Makes a Parent Negligent?

Full post as published by Florida Divorce - Child Custody - Domestic Abuse Law on June 16, 2009 (boomark / email).