Feelings on China's new BMI law?

Question

China, long known for it's rigorous adoption requirements, has now imposed a BMI standard so that you can't be fat and adopt a child.

Can anyone argue as to why that's a good idea? It seems to me that being raised by overweight parents would be better than being raised in an orphanage, but maybe I'm missing something. Thoughts?

Answer 1

I have no idea why they're making up something so ridiculous, but they have been making up new rules and strict regulations because the new census in China shown there are about 40,000 more boys than girls. I think they're trying to preserve the populations of girls. Since Chinese usually keeps their boy children around and girls are the one gets aborted by selective gender abortion, and getting adopted. They're predicting that many men will stay single in their lives when they're ready to start a family.

Answer 2

Unlikely that this new law will in no way hinder the adoption of any child in China. This is why they adopted these restrictions: There are way too many adoptive parents wanting to adopt in China in relation to the number of healthy, young children (and unfortunately, just like anywhere, these are the children most people want to parent). China has adopter stricter laws, because they can! They needed a way to "weed out" some parents because there were too many applicants.

Now whether this is a fair restriction or not is another matter. But agencies here in the U. S. can have similar restrictions! If they are a private agency, they can set any policy they want. Like, that the adoptive parents have to be Christian. Or cannot be gay. Or can use physical punishment, or cannot. Or have to be married at least 3 years, or 10 years. Or can be single, or not. Or make 100K a year. Etc.

Countries can do the same. They are in charge of deciding what they think is best based on their knowledge and experience (or for any other reason). While I may or may not agree with the specifics, at least they taking the initiative to "care" enough about their children to make policies!

There are plenty of other agencies and countries to adopt through.

Answer 3

The wait for a child from China is now 18-20 months and may get longer. The new rules (must be under age 49 and married for 2 years) are partially to limit the requests from foreigners to adopt the children. But they have their set of values just as we do ours. The best interests of the child include having parents with a better chance of living long enough for the child to reach adulthood and be sent to college. Thus, no fatties or old parents. One has to have a complete physical signed by a doctor submitted with the adoption petition. The Chinese also require that the prospective parents have no facial deformities. That is harder to understand than the obesity thing.

Answer 4

Every country with adoptable children has the right to set standards for whom they consider to be acceptable parents. From what I understand, the BMI standard was imposed to ensure that adopting families are in reasonably good health. Also, as China's economy grows, there has been a rise in Chinese children being adopted domestically. Since Chinese families are given priority, this will increase the wait time for American families and also allow China to impose more standards on them.

When I work with families adopting internationally, I try to explain that the requirements are set by each country, and it's my job to be sure that our families meet that country's guidelines. If families don't meet China's standards, there are many other countries to adopt from. Also, China has slightly more relaxed standards for special needs children.

Answer 5

It has to do with health issues and cultural beliefs. They want the children to go to families where the parents are healthy and able to take care of the child. Morbidly obese parents can't do all the same physical things that overweight and normal weight parents can do. It is even hard for some parents to bend over and pick up a child. In Chinese culture gluttony is not an acceptable lifestyle.
The main point is that they want the children to be raised by families that can afford to raise them, will be around to raise them and love them as if they were their bio kids.

Answer 6

Children raised in the same lifestyle of their adoptive parents often have the same bad habits as adults. The Chinese are apparently reacting to the increase in childhood obesity in the US. However, they ignored the twin studies that showed that identical twins, adopted apart, rarely varied more than 15 pounds from each other no matter what the adopted parent's lifestyle (more than 800 pairs of identical twins and counting!). I think it was a poorly thought out decision, but it's their decision to make. There doesn't seem to be any fewer couples adopting from China, so it likely doesn't affect the children who might be adopted.

Answer 7

A BMI over 40 is considered Morbidly Obese. There's nothing beyond being Morbidly Obese. A healthy BMI is between 18.5-25. You can still be overweight and adopt children from China, you just can't be morbidly obese.

Like others have said children will take after their parents eating habits. Besides that they want parents who will be alive to raise the child for years to come. Having a BMI over 40 raises the risks of many health issues.

I understand people who have turned to food after the stress of trying to have children, but you have to be able to take control of your life.

Answer 8

I agree that its definitely better to be raised by overweight parents than in an orphanage, however I don't think they are lacking for adoptive parents? There are lots of people hoping to adopt from China that I know of.

I think it does have to do with increased health risk, etc.

Answer 9

Wow, that's the first I ever heard of that! Maybe it's their way of trying to reduce obesity? That's the only logical reason I could think of, other than maybe since obese people have more health problem that could intefere with their ability to raise children. True though that a child would fair better with an obese parenting them than living in an orphanage where there is no love.

Answer 10

I think any country has a right to set their requirements and procedures as long as it doesn't violate the Hague Convention.

A family with a healthy BMI will statistically have a longer life expectancy giving the child a family for longer. While it's true that anyone could die at any moment from nearly anything...statistics show a higher likelihood of a person with an unhealthy BMI to die younger.