Obesity a disability?

Clarky

what a complete and utter load of shite

if being fat is not a side effect of some other medical condition or treatment then it's totally the fat fella's own fault.. he can either do something about it... or keep scoffing the pies and quaffing the ale...

it really is that simple..

bobblehat

bluechargeboy said:

CHRISB50 said:

I can understand that some people have a proper condition that causes them to gain weight or maybe on medication that does it.

 

But for someone who just chooses to eat badly and therefore becomes obese, for them to be considered disabled is a load of bollocks. Surely you take responsibility for your own actions? Rather than making it someone elses problem! Or am I being naive!?

So if someone falls off a mountain bike and ends up in a wheelchair, are they not be classed as disabled because they brought it on themselves by doing a high risk sport?

Eating cakes and being a lazy bastard is not a sport!

sinbaadi

hugbot said:

I would think obesity is a disability. A condition that causes you to not be able to do the same things as able bodied people = disability.

Now, whether you got in that situation by your own fault is another matter, but even by that logic there are still other conditions that are technically accepted as disabilities that you could have ended up with as a result of your own actions.

So is a general lack of fitness also a disability?  You don't have to be obese to be unfit, and not everyone can lift sacks of flour, or ride a push-bike all day.  

I think it's somewhat absurd.  Next smoking-addiction will be considered a disability, and smokers won't have to work so many hours because their lungs can't cope.

Clarky

bobblehat said:

bluechargeboy said:

CHRISB50 said:

I can understand that some people have a proper condition that causes them to gain weight or maybe on medication that does it.

 

But for someone who just chooses to eat badly and therefore becomes obese, for them to be considered disabled is a load of bollocks. Surely you take responsibility for your own actions? Rather than making it someone elses problem! Or am I being naive!?

So if someone falls off a mountain bike and ends up in a wheelchair, are they not be classed as disabled because they brought it on themselves by doing a high risk sport?

Eating cakes and being a lazy bastard is not a sport!

it totally is... and some folk are really good at it too...

strumjoughlamps

Drew_fx;448840" said:

What about being skinny? Why do fat people get all the attention?

Easier to spot

Snap

Obesity isnt the same as being fat. Clinically obese is BMI over 30, which for most people is a useful measure, and is the level of fatness that is starting to lead to health issues.

I don't think that definition of obesity is necessarily correctly classified as a disabililty. certainly morbid obesity is disabling - as in so fat, you are likely to die from it.

Thing is, the powers that be are realising that wieght gain is a problem everywhere in the developed world, and its an area of medicine/health that will be increasingly in the spotlight. People get fat, they start to cost countries money. Something needs to change, cos no country with a publich health service (as in free for all at point of provision) can afford the emerging health problems that are direclty linked to high weight.

holnrew

This thread has been entirely predictable.

Phil_aka_Pip

While I accept there are some people who get fat through no fault of their own, even though they eat little other than lettuce (people with thyroid deficiency for example), it is my opinion that the majority are lard-arses because they eat fattening food and don't burn the calories off. That is not a disability, it is self-neglect.

chillidoggy

This is potentially wonderful news. As I'm a fat cunt, I might be able to get a mobility scooter to ride on the pavement and piss people off.

Sambostar

Yeah, and I'II push you over and you'll be wriggling around flailing your arms in the air like a turtle stuck on it's back (Not legs, as, let's be realistic, they'll be too heavy eh) 

Hootsmon

 

EricTheWeary

Fairly sure Tesco doesn't sell porn. Prawns maybe.
What is a disability is an issue at work, for me, in various ways partly because managers have to record disability related and non disability related illnesses differently ( sickness absence rates being the great obsession of public sector management). It is largely self defined anyway, as I understand it, so an EU court ruling isn't that meaningful. A common example is asthma. Someone with asthma gets a chest infection they are sicker and longer off work than someone who doesn't have asthma who gets the same infection. So the asthma sufferer considers it to be disability related and it goes on a different part of the records. I doubt if many people would consider mild asthma to be a disability or that someone with it would get a disabled parking space,etc but in that context ( the infection) I'd say it is.
Even so I struggle a bit with obesity as a disability because you would normally consider disabilities to be permanent or long term conditions. So, missing a leg is a disability, having a broken leg isn't. Obesity is potential a temporary and treatable condition.
One anecdote. I have two people at work of a similar age (approx 50) both of whom have arthritis in their knees. Very hard to really say but, to me, they seem to have very similar conditions. Their attitude toward it is very different though. With the one I doubt if many people are aware of her condition as it rarely stops her doing stuff. With the other her disability is almost always in the start of many conversations i.e. it stops her doing things. Rather conveniently at times it seems.

Evilmags

Christ, turning down a bloated because she's 18 stone will soon get you sued for discrimination.

cruxiform

Disability my arse. People are fat because they're lazy c***s who eat more calories than they expend through exercise. I know because I was one. However, through eating eating less and running for exercise I have managed to shed the excess timber. We're not born fat.

beed84

Suggesting obesity is a disability is surely changing the meaning of what obesity is and exploiting the meaning of disability.  Eating lots of food is what causes, or at least can cause, a person to be obese; however, this doesn't mean to say that someone who is overweight is disabled because of it, more that they've engendered a potential health risk.  

If the courts are considering obesity could fall into the category of disability, then so could colds, hangovers and headaches, because they too can affect an employees performance at work.

Grunfeld

The concept of disability is problematic at the best of times.  At the very least you've got a distinction between the physical impairment and the social disability.  And with obesity, in the current social climate, many people want to add a dimension of ethical judgement too.  So you get a concept which seems to be a mixture of the physical, the social (e.g. workplace and/ or benefits), and moral judgement.

My own 2p's is to stick as far as possible to physical impairment.  Keep it at the individual level of responsibility.  (I.e. don't go down the route of employers' responsibilities, and state welfare entitlements.) 

It's not to say there are not social forces exerting a pressure, there are -- obesity is a new problem... it didn't come from nowhere... people didn't become "morally sloppy" fat people in a generation just as a result of multiple individual choices.  Something is pushing people into obesity.  But that's another debate.

I don't want to see someone with a BMI of 34 say to themselves, "oh fuck it, if I hit BMI 35 I'll qualify for benefits and I'll be entitled to an extra big seat at work, so it's not worth trying to lose weight."

thecolourbox

Well a lot of disabled folks have had most of their money taken off them anyway so I'm not sure there's any benefit to getting fat in this way?

Sambostar

What grates me is that smokers pay for their NHS treatment 15 times over, some 3 grand in extra taxes a year, yet are excluded from treatment until they have given up.  Fat people who pay little in extra taxes on food get free healthcare and clog up the system so the smokers can't get treatment.

jd0272

thecolourbox;449654" said:

Well a lot of disabled folks have had most of their money taken off them anyway so I'm not sure there's any benefit to getting fat in this way?

One of those blue badges has to be worth it? Could've used one in the absolute fucking mania that is town centre parking today

p90fool

Phil_aka_Pip;449143" said:

While I accept there are some people who get fat through no fault of their own, even though they eat little other than lettuce (people with thyroid deficiency for example).

I don't. Go to a famine zone, you won't find a bunch of fat lasses in a bus shelter puffing on Embassy Regals saying "ee, I've always bin big boned, me, it's me thyroid". That only happens in places with plentiful food.

If you don't have enough to eat, you get thin. We are not cress, we don't bulk up through sunlight alone.