Prospective parents not allowed to adopt because they're 'too fat'

Prospective parents are being turned away from adopting kids because they are “too fat”.

The Adopt Change ‘Barriers to Adoption’ research can reveal body mass index is a factor being used to rejecting local adoption, according to News Corp.

Body mass index is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared.

A 25-year-old woman, who only wished to be identitied as Melissa, was told her BMI was too high and was given the red light on adopting a child, despite having run three triathlons in the year prior and regularly attending the gym.

Melissa and her partner Chris took seven years to start their family.

“I was 100kg at the time we were rejected on the basis of BMI. Absolutely, I was overweight, but I had run three triathlons in that year beforehand and I was not unhealthy or unable to care for a child,” she said.

“I also had polycystic ovarian syndrome and one of the side effects of that is being overweight.”

Melissa said she lost 50 kilograms to ensure the couple could be approved for adoption by having part of her stomach removed through gastric sleeve surgery.

But even after the surgery the couple were unable to adopt because they were told Chris did not have enough experience with children despite working as a teacher.

Eventually, the couple were able to adopt two-year-old James, but Melissa said the process shouldn’t have been so difficult.

“I recognise the need for vetting of adopted parents but BMI should not be a knockout indicator of whether or not we could care for a child,” she said.

“I think there are a lot of wonderful people who could be great parents who haven’t been approved because of these arbitrary measures that really don’t contribute to how good a parent they could be.”

Martin, 41, was told his BMI was too high from bulking up at the gym.

He and his wife Jessica wanted to adopt a second child.

But luckily, he was able to make the cut-off before having to submit an updated health assessment.

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“If that was our first adoption we would have absolutely been rejected,” he said.

“Luckily we were already in the system and the caseworkers knew us and so pushed through our paperwork — otherwise it would have been lost to the rigid assessment and I would have been deemed too fat according to BMI.

“You’d rather not go to the gym and stay unfit if it meant you would lose out on getting to be a father.”

More than 30,000 children in Australia are living separately from their birth families and need permanent residency, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Only 196 of Australian children were adopted last year, five per cent less than the previous year and the lowest number on record.

Adopt Change’s research found that of 1052 cases 83 per cent experienced problems with the adoption process.

A total of 57 per cent experienced delays, including 40 per cent who spent five or more years on the process.

Eighty-two per cent said they found the experience overwhelming with only 33 per cent getting adequate support from their foster agency or department.

Adopt Change CEO Renee Carter said some of the issues, including BMI but also age and length of marriage were “bizarre” and described the system as “broken”.

“We need urgent change in order to provide these children with a more permanent and supportive environment, rather than barriers to belonging,” she said.

Australian Medical Association President Michael Gannon said he was “shocked” BMI was being used to deny adoption.

“BMI is a long way from being a perfect measure of someone’s weight or wellbeing,” Dr Gannon said.