DALLAS – A man who weighed 558 pounds when a Missouri judge prevented him from adopting a child he and his wife had taken into their home underwent gastric bypass surgery Friday in a bid to win the child back.
Gary Stocklaufer, a 34-year-old truck driver, and his wife claim a judge unfairly discriminated against them because of his weight in deciding to give 4-month-old Max to another couple for possible adoption. The infant from Arlington, who is related to the Stocklaufers, had lived with them since he was a week old.
This is considered the first case where a couple seeking to adopt has resorted to surgery in the increasingly prevalent practice of denying parents adoptions because they are obese, several adoption experts said.
Was: “unfairly discriminated against them because of his weight”
Should be: “discriminated against them because of health reasons”
“underwent gastric bypass surgery”
…. now the child will be better off so the judge did the right thing.
Obesity has real life consequences. Adopting a young child is a commitment for 20 years or more. Weighing nearly 600 pounds is not healthy for a human skeleton nor the joints.
Now they have done something in taking steps to lose weigh that will benefit both themselves and the child greatly.
True justice served.
THE END
/Smokers without the discipline to “step outside” (30% ?) should be denied adoption as an aside.
Agreed. Since he is a truck driver, I’m sure he is the money maker for the family so if he were to drop over, who would support the kid. The waitress wife?
If the kid was OK to live in the house since a week old this this is clearly wrong.
If they felt it was OK for them to watch the kid all this time then adaption should be fine.
Health issues aside they could have told him he needed to have his health in check before adaption and allow time for them to get that treatment.
Fat people make bad parents, but the courts seem to have no problems with drug addicts, alcoholics, abusers, Brittney Spears and so on.
#5, gq,
Very good points
Using this rationale, people who smoke, drink, drive too fast, skydive, scuba dive, police, firefighters, crab fishermen and soldiers should not be allowed to adopt either. They all live way too dangerously and there’s a fair chance that they may not be around for 20 years after they adopt. Only skinny computer geeks, the idle rich and super-models should be allowed to adopt.
i’m sorry, but it is just cold-blooded and cruel to break up an established family like this — lots of parents are fat, you gonna take away their kids?
go fix your own families — this is just plain wrong.
#2 the fact that you can sit there and pass judgment on a man who has loved and cared for this child for the child’s entire life makes me wanna puke, you should be ashamed.
so much for family values
#7 and maybe, they are
#5 i have relatives that are obese and their families are happy and well-adjusted, my own grandmother was a very large woman who had nothing but love for us grandkids and our love for her bordered on worship
you people are fucking sick in the head and in the heart and in your soul
i sincerly hope you never have some overworked family court come evaluate your family.
i bet you a million dollars when that kid cried to stay with the only father he knew, your heart would change, if not, then you have no heart
#2 wow. pretty soulless there, chief, but i guess since you are perfect person it’s okay to dole out missives like that, hunh?
Grog, you misunderstood my post. I don’t think there is anything wrong with fat people as parents. It was a comparison on how the court is picking on this, when there are other far worse traits that courts ignore.
Read the post next time.
#13 — i sincerely apologize — this kind of crap turns my stomach and sickens me to my core and i went off half-cocked
5, 13 gquaglia.
Certainly there are natural parents who are: drug addicts, alcoholics, abusers. But show me where the courts have routinely permitted adoptions knowing this in advance.
Following your logic: Why have adoptions come before the courts at all when there are far more important matters for courts to be concerned with.
RBG
Interesting Case. Even if you are anti-fat, the facts in this case are hard to ignore what with the history and family relationships involved.
Still==grog==not much to be incensed about here. There is no “right” to adopt kiddies, so those wishing to do so should conform to the prejudicies of the day.
Everything else being equal ((which it isn’t in this case)), of course, morbidly obese fat people die young–leaving the kiddies without a parent. When no fat adopters are available, the kid should go to them.
“Established family”??
“His entire life”??
The kid is 4-months old, and he is only living with them because he is “related to the Stocklaufers”…
Why should the Court rubber-stamp an ad-hoc living relationship?
As RBG asks, in #15: “Why have adoptions come before the courts at all…”
And its not like obesity is something a Court would not concern itself with, before this:
http://www.workerscompinsider.com/archives/000403.html
http://tinyurl.com/z5hs7
Love your children: Stop using the treadmill to hang clothes on.
#15, #16, #17
not much to be incensed about here.
i disagree, the family court system is notorious for bad judgment in every jurisdiction (they’re overworked and underpaid) and when i hear about a man and woman who use what little money they have to bring foster kids into their home, and offer all that they have to have a child to call their own, lose that hope because of an inconsistent court just breaks my heart, and hearing people applaud the court’s inconsistency and talk nonchalantly of how the family deserves their loss makes me physically sick.
19–grog==when the kiddie gets placed with another family presumed to be a better placement, where is the concern?
The Stocklaufers have already had more than their fair share of rejected kiddies.
Where is your sense of distributed fairness?? (smile!)
You have to assume alot all around to actually “think” anything about this. Too many foster parents MAKE MONEY off the kiddies==not all, just too many. How do you know the kiddie is not better off where he got placed?
Stop being a doormat for the “offense of the week”. Grow up.