Botox on an 8-year-old: Child abuse?

Kerry Campbell, a San Francisco mother, has lost custody of her 8-year-old daughter, Britney, while social workers investigate a claim that she injected the girl with Botox. Campbell admitted on ABC's Good Morning America last week that she gave the girl injections so she wouldn't have wrinkles on her face when she competed in child beauty pageants. The broadcast provoked a flood of complaints to San Francisco's child abuse hotline, and Britney was placed in the care of other relatives for her safety. Did the social services agency overreact, or is injecting a child with Botox child abuse?

Campbell is unfit to be a parent: "I'm glad that little Britney is in a safe place," says Jacqueline Burt at The Stir, "and hopefully won't be getting more needles stuck in her face." My only question is why San Francisco's Human Services Agency didn't spot this obvious child abuse sooner. "Obvious nut-jobs like this woman" can't be difficult to spot, yet time and again they wait so long to do something that kids end up permanently damaged, or dead.

"Botox mom gets busted by CPS, but are they doing enough?"

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But revoking custody is not the answer: "I totally agree with the need to remove the child from the home," says Jonathan Turley at his blog, but that doesn't mean the loss of custody should be permanent. "The whole beauty contest culture for children is a bit repellent for some of us, and seems to lend itself to this type of excessiveness." But splitting up a family over such a single lapse in judgment isn't necessarily an appropriate penalty.

"You have your mother's Botox"

Let this be a warning to lousy parents: Britney is reportedly upset about being taken from her mother, says Sistina Giordano at Gather. That's heartbreaking. "But a mother who elects to inject her 8-year-old with Botox is not a parent." Let's hope this family's ordeal will teach "all the overbearing pageant moms out there" a lesson. It's time to just "let kids be kids."

"8-year-old Botox girl Britney Campbell in the custody of family"