Australian children to be weighed and measured in obesity crackdown
Yahoo! News 19 July 2006
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The Issue

The Australian government is the most recent addition to the ranks of regimes determined to take an active role in fighting obesity among its citizenry in general and the children in especial. (See previous post:
More About Government Regulating Healthcare Compliance)

The Plan

Citing statistics that as many as 25% of Australian children are overweight, Tony Abbott, the Federal Health Minister reported plans to survey, weigh, and measure 4,000 children to increase awareness of the problem and to educate the children and their parents about the dangers of obesity and means to combat it.

Mr. Abbott went on to say

Commentary

The newfound fascination of governments for regulating, overtly or indirectly, food intake as a public health issue resembles earlier efforts to limit substance abuse, alcoholic access, and tobacco use. This history indicates that education and awareness campaigns of the sort Australia advocates are unlikely to prove sufficient. If that proves the case, the stakes become much higher, and the question becomes Is the risk of obesity a sufficient threat to the public health that the government has the justification or obligation to criminalize excessive food intake?

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