Monday, November 17, 2008

When Fat Hatred, Emotional Blackmail, and a God-Complex Meet...

... you get this result as evidenced by the story below, taken from an issue of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, dated 23 July 1960. Without further comment:

Man, Wife Lose Weight in Order to Adopt Baby Girl

LOS ANGELES (AP) Months of rigid dieting paid off Friday for an overweight man and wife when they gained permission to adopt a 1-year-old girl they have raised from birth:

After shedding 159 pounds between them, they vowed to keep on dieting “until we get down to a decent size.”

“I’m too happy to say anything,” said Mrs. Bernice Sherman, 37, as she blinked back tears after a closed hearing in which Superior Judge Ben Koenig approved the adoption.

“It was a long struggle,” concluded her husband, Frank, 39, “but it paid off,”

Three months ago, Koenig ordered the Shermans… to show they could lose more weight before he would allow them to keep the child.

They weighed 320 and 250 pounds then and had been watching calories since last November 27, when they weighed 369 and 281. After hearing Koenig’s ruling they stepped up their dieting.

At Friday’s court session, Sherman, a truck driver, weighed 277 and his wife 214. Between them they had lost 79 pounds since April alone.

“We make no further objections to this adoption,” announced Walter A. Heath, director of the adoption bureau, His agency had opposed their petition to adopt little Janet when they came before him April 8.

The Shermans were told then because of their excess weight they “might not live to be good parents.” But a doctor examined them and said they both were healthy, and “they could outlive us all.”

4 comments:

Sylvia said...

Wow. That's just...

I have no words for that level of ridiculousness.

SLiver of Jade said...

Well gee, I'm certainly glad that my parents weren't overweight when they tried to adopt me or else I might have died before they got down to a "decent" size. (I'm not exaggerating, either).

Zan said...

Wow. You know, Emmy and I are considering adoption once we get our lives settled (you know -- once she's got a job and we can legally live in the same country together *sigh*) and this? This just...what the hell??? It's not like the deck isn't stacked against us to begin with -- I've got Lupus and she's trans -- but to have my weight used against me? What the....*sigh* Well. This just makes sperm donation a more viable option. . .

Renee said...

This is absolutely unbelievable. A child is better off sitting in limbo than being adopted by two people that clearly lover her and want to parent her? None of us know when our time is up. I could walk out my front door and get hit by a car and die. No one knows the future and to say someone might die and therefor they should not be allowed to adopt is discriminatory we all might die. Good grief any excuse to justify fat hatred.

Revelations and ruminations from one southern sistorian...