No Country for Fat Children? Ethical Questions Concerning Community-Based Programs to Prevent Obesity

A personal letter from the Department of Health warning parents of overweight children, 1 compulsory membership of a soccer club, 2 banning soft drinks vending machines in schools, 3 supervision for the parents of obese children: 2 What are the ethical issues when it comes to interventions and programs aimed at preventing or combating obesity in children? What questions should be asked and answered before embarking on the implementation of different measures? That is the subject of this chapter. Convictions on balancing the responsibilities of parents, state and companies differ. We set out here to provide those who develop and implement certain measures with " tools " to take into account the ethical dimension of their work, not because they are immune, ignorant or unsympathetic to that dimension, but in order to structure the debate. While doing so, however, we do not pretend that evaluating ethical issues always leads to clear - cut and shared answers for practice.

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