Ethics large and small: moral considerations in response to childhood obesity

Obesity in the U.S. has been described as an epidemic, and in response to such rhetoric, individuals, healthcare providers, public health officials, even state legislatures, and courts have proposed initiatives or enacted consequences either to encourage better eating habits, discourage poor eating habits, or even punish poor nutritional practices. All these actions raise ethical concerns for public health and individual patient care. This talk will explore a number of these issues and will suggest that certain state-based responses do not merit ethical scrutiny, but individual provider directiveness in regards to nutritional counseling, especially with parents of overweight children, is warranted.