Quote:
Originally Posted by jimworcs
Her sedentary lifestyle, combined with depression caused her to gain a significant amount of weight. She had her disability sticker long before she was overweight, due to her asthma. However, once she became fat, all of God's Judges appeared. Comments were regularly made which suggested perhaps she wouldn't be so breathless if she wasn't so obese, or implying that her disability was self inflicted.
|
Your patient ate the food. Your patient lead a sedentary lifestyle. No one forced to her to do so, or caused her obesity but her. With whatever medical background you have, do you deny that "she wouldn't be so breathless if she wasn't so obese? Anyone who said that to her was in fact correct; as was any implication that her voluntary obesity contributed to her mobility/medical problems. One need only look on the internet to see that obesity is a major contributor to many medical problems.
I believe with the aging and physical decline of the American population, we need to tighten the air line rules to define a disability for these purposes as what traditionally has been defined as disabled, e.g. paralyzed. We need to do so, in order to avoid the time when a large percentage of flyers claim to be disabled simply because they have chosen not to exercise and to eat instead. Why should we have more compassion for obese people then we do for smokers, each of whom by their personal actions have contributed to their problems.