Something I just read on
www.news.com.au
Woman told: Too fat to adopt child
January 09, 2003
A 21-year-old woman says she is not allowed to adopt a baby because the West Australian government told her she is too fat.
Mrs Gaywood believes she is being discriminated against.
Jodie Gaywood, from the Perth suburb of Armadale, is desperate for an infant of her own, but she said at 120kg the state government deemed her too large.
She said the government had rejected her application to adopt a child but approved one by her husband, Jay Gaywood, 26.
"I'm pleased to advise the representative has recommended Mr Gaywood is fit to adopt," Mrs Gaywood quoted a letter from the Department for Community Development as saying.
"Unfortunately, at this time the medical panel representatives are unable to recommended Mrs Gaywood as her body mass index is above the acceptable level."
Mrs Gaywood said the WA government believed she should weigh 98kg or less.
But the distraught young woman explained that a disease prevented her from shedding the excess bulk.
"I have tried to lose weight," Mrs Gaywood said.
"I have polycystic ovary syndrome, and specialists have told me the disease messed with my hormones."
Mrs Gaywood said she had been to a naturopath for help and tried strict diets, but the fat would not shift.
"I exercise every day, sometimes twice a day," she said.
"But it just does not budge (the fat), it's kind of set on that weight."
Mrs Gaywood believes she is being discriminated against.
"Yeah, I'm fat," she said.
"But I have low blood pressure, and I look after children all the time, so why are they stopping me from being a mum?
"They (the state government) should look at cases like mine and understand it's not my fault.
"What if a 98kg lady adopts, and then next year she decides to eat and eat and eat and puts weight on, what are they going to do, take the baby off her?"
The Gaywood couple tried to be part of the IVF program, but a doctor told her that her weight made the program too risky.
The Department for Community Development's acting general director, Lex McCulloch, said the agency wanted adoptive parents to be within the healthy weight range to ensure they lived long enough to raise a child.
"Weight is an important aspect, because when you put it in the context of thinking about children, we obviously want the couples to have a good chance of being able to care for that child until the child reaches adulthood," Mr McCulloch said.
"Now, people who are obese, and it's not any secret when your body mass index is way up, your chances of serious illness and early death are increased.
"So that is an important factor in our considerations."
Mr McCulloch said Mrs Gaywood had the option of providing further information to the adoption committee about her illness.
He said adoption was about finding families for children, and not about finding children for childless couples.
"Unfortunately, people come to adoption as a last resort," he said.
"They have been through IVF and they are desperate by the time they get to adoption."
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it makes you wonder
Woman told: Too fat to adopt child :- must read 
