Mother of 555-pound Child Arrested for Neglect

In this article, Jerry Gray, a mother of a 555-pound, 14-year-old boy in South Carolina was charged with child neglect for allegedly failing to control her son's weight. Gray was contacted by the local Department of Social Services several times regarding her son, Alexander's weight, and was issued a treatment plan to reduce his morbid obesity. However Gray responded that she cannot afford the suggested treatment program, as she already works two or three shifts a day to support her family. As Alexander's weight continued to increase beyond 555 pounds, Gray was arrested on the basis of putting her son at an unreasonable risk of harm, and Alexander was taken into custody and placed into foster care.

This case particularly draw upon ethical concerns, contesting the definition of neglect and the concept of basic rights. By any medical standard in the United States, Alexander Draper is considered obese. But the important issue to address is who is to blame for the child's obesity? Is the child responsible for his own actions, or is the mother responsible for neglecting to protect her child? Under the law of the United States, an individual is considered a minor until the age of 18. Prior to becoming a legal adult, the child is under the protection of his legal guardians; it is the responsibility of the guardian to ensure the well-being of the child, so the failure to do so would be considered an act of neglect. In any case the child will not be persecuted for his obesity so the police has turned to the mother as the suspect. The local police proclaimed that Alexander's mother, Jerry Gray, is to blame. As the law enforcement told CBS News, "the first and foremost concern is Alexander's health. Gray should have put the boy in a treatment program." Supporters of the verdict argue that Gray's lack of intuitive in attempt to improve her son's serious health condition even after several warnings can be marked as child abuse. Who possesses the right to determine how a child should be raised, the parents or the state? This is another concern shared by the contesters of this trial.

The problem with persecuting the mother is that most state laws require that only in imminent danger should criminal charges be filed, and although obesity can lead to serious health conditions, it does not bring about imminent danger. "This is not a case of a mother force-feeding a child, if she had been force-feeding him, sure I can understand. But she does not have the means to do it" said Grant Varner, a critic of the state's decision. Many critics fear that the verdict will open the Pandora's box and open doors to more criminal actions against parents whose children have become dangerously overweight. Following this logic, should parents of children who are anorexic, bulimic, pregnant or have committed crimes such as robbing or killing also be prosecuted? In which case where can the line of personal responsibility be drawn? At what age does an individual become truly responsible for his actions?

In this particular case, the state should not have arrested Gray for neglecting her child. She had the will but not the economic means to fulfill the suggested treatments for Alexander. If the Department of Social Services really wanted to care for Alexander, it is in his best interest to be with his loving mother. What the department could consider doing is to financially and physically support Alexander through the course of his treatment. The ideal situation is to seek a benevolent volunteer who is willing to financially support him in combating obesity and bring him to appointments, while still allowing Alexander to be home.

The greater issue contested falls in the categories of reason and language. In terms of reason and logic, the question to contemplate upon would be concerning how we know anything at all. But focusing on language, the question to address concerns the nature of language. The reason there are critics of the verdict is that there is no definition way to define words. Definitions of neglect and parental responsibilities can be clearly written out by profound scholars in a published document, yet this still would not satisfy the actual meaning of the concepts, simply because language itself is flawed. Language is simply a fabricated tool used to represent a greater concept, but the map is not the territory. Words were invented to describe feelings, ideas, or objects but without these words, the same substance still existed. Although some people argue that before language and words were invented, the substance also ceased to exist because reality exists only in one's mind.

The problem with language is that each individual sees the world from a different perspective. Words simply describe a general concept, the same concept could be interpreted and experienced by each individual in different ways. One could touch a table and describe the counter as hard and solid while another could touch the very same surface and interpret the counter as soft. How do you know that your experience of the world is the ultimate project of the world in the eyes of others? Each individual's experience of the world is limited to his sensory projection, but one can assume that there is a general perspective shared among species such that different people can use words to describe seemingly identical objects. Words categorize and generalize a part of perceived reality. But this generalization causes a problem when a case does not fit the category or the spectrum of words invented to describe the phenomenon.

Another widely debated real life issue concerns the relationship between two regions, China and Taiwan. Since the Taiwanese independence from Japanese rule and the establishment of an independent Taiwanese government, Taiwan has been fighting for its independence from China. The struggle is purely a political debate with the core of the controversy in the definition of simple words. The failure to agree upon Taiwan's national identity is the root cause of the debate. All the protests and tension all boil down to whether or not Taiwan should remain legally part of China. This can be related to the case of Alexander Draper. The main debate of the case is over the definition of individual responsibility and neglect. It is because politics, law, and practically all professions are obsessed with language and the definition of words that often the most controversial debates boil down to a fight over a few words.