OBESITY

It's not about technology, it's all about life choices. What good is technology if people can't use their minds and simply put a stop to their unhealthy eating habits? Technology shouldn't be a cure to anything; it should only assist us, and perhaps allow us to think wiser. What kind of technology could even help a 600 lb kid? Liposuction? That has its dangers and it's very likely that even after the liposuction is done, the kid continues with their terrible eating habits, leading to heart-related conditions in the future. Then you can go on to argue that we should have technology to help treat heart-related conditions; that's true, and we do, but it would simply be better to educate people into making healthy life choices than letting yourself go for 30 years and then faltering because of some condition that was avoidable from the get-go. If children are educated about these things at a young age, this attitude will carry to their children and society will develop this behaviour after several generations. If someone has a thyroid condition or is taking some sort of medicine that decreases your overall metabolism, then that should be treated as soon as possible. Fortunately, however, we don't typically see 600 lb kids and that's because traits like those aren't selected for in our society.

I agree very much with Duddy. The thing is, even though obesity is happening nationwide in US, seeing things like this is still quite rare. The only place you'd see something like this would be on TV (i.e. the popular television show, The Biggest Loser) and television programs typically display things that spark viewer's interest - anything rare, such as a >500 lb child would spark interest, and it gets people thinking that nearly all young Americans are obese, which is not true. Personally, I don't think scientists should invest their time creating technology to counteract things that are preventable, but work toward things that cannot be treated or things that are more widespread, such as AIDS and hepatitis.

bio_man: here in TEXAS it is very popular i have seen a 900lb individual that lives here and was on national TV about 2 years ago. I know several people that have children from 3 yrs old weighing 100lbs and 12 yrs olds weighing 300lbs