too fat to adopt

Is your weight related to your parenting skills?

The fat police are at it again. A British couple recently applied to adopt a child in England and were denied because, at 6'1" and 343 pounds, the potential dad is overweight.

Different countries have different restrictions for adoptive parents: You might have to be of a certain religion or race, or you might have to be married. China's doors are no longer open to single parents, and the country no longer lets overweight couples adopt either.

What is it about carrying a few extra pounds that means someone isn't parent material?

The Leeds City Council in Britain told Damien Hall that he would have to reduce his Body Mass Index (BMI) from 42 to below 40 because of a "risk he could become ill or even die." The couple has been married for 14 years. Neither Damien nor his wife Charlotte drinks or smokes, and they both have good jobs.

Sixty percent of Americans are overweight, and 40 percent of those are obese. Does that mean none of those people should be parents—either by adoption or pregnancy? Yup, says Jayne at Momlogic.

Jayne thinks there should be rules about how fat you can be when it comes to adopting—or even having kids. She says, "Would you let someone with terminal cancer adopt a child? No. Why? Because, should the person die, then that child will be left alone again! Would you let someone with a drug or alcohol addiction adopt a child? No. Why? Because living with someone who has an addiction is not healthy." She then goes on to say that fat people are fat because they "eat too [darn]  much," and that no fat person can love themselves. Jayne says that parents with weight issues who pass those issues onto their kids are abusive. And she thinks that Damien should have to lose even more weight than the British government requires.

Hmm. I wonder what she thinks about anorexics.

What do you think? Do you think there is such a thing as being too fat to have or adopt a baby?