Obese face a ban on adopting

Published on Saturday 24 January 2009 18:46

OBESE people will be barred from adopting if their weight is seen as a risk to their long-term health, councils in Scotland are warning.

Local authorities say they may bar prospective parents if medical assessments show they are not fit enough to take on a child. Scotland's two largest councils – Glasgow and Edinburgh – have confirmed that as obesity is an indicator for health problems, it is being used as a factor when considering prospective parents.

It comes after a married couple in Leeds were told they could not adopt because one was too fat. Twenty-four-and-a-half-stone Damien Hall and his wife Charlotte were told that his body mass index would have to fall below 40 – above which people are classified as morbidly obese – before he could be considered as a potential parent.

Leeds City Council said his weight put him at risk of becoming ill or dying. Glasgow and Edinburgh said they would consider obese couples on a case-by-case basis, but confirmed that they, too, might follow Leeds' policy.

A spokesman for Edinburgh said: "All prospective adoptive parents are given a medical check by a GP. An assessment is then made on any issue that may come up as to whether it would impede their ability to look after a child. So if a person was very overweight, so much so that it was damaging their health, this may become part of that assessment."

In Glasgow, a spokesman added: "If people were dealing with it and managing it then it isn't likely to be a problem. However, if the person wasn't taking it seriously and wasn't dealing with, for example, the diabetes that may be caused by obesity, then it could lead to a refusal."