Breaking your leg snowboarding is a quick result, but usually is not the result of one's intentional actions, since if one skied as intended then one would not end up breaking one's leg. Smoking and obesity are a long term activities in which the people know they will be hurt by their INTENDED actions, e.g. smoking, eating. These are more like standing on a railroad track for hours, until a train comes along. Yet, people continue to do them.
Just because people become obese, does not mean that they are not disabled, as with asthma. My position is that people who can walk, should walk: e.g. in Florida, a handicap parking sticker is only given to persons who cannot walk "200 feet" without resting because of certain medical conditions. F.S. 320.0848. This requires certification from a doctor.
The "200 feet" requirement may need to be greater for airline travel, but the current rule could be modified with requirement of a doctor certification, as with "emotional support" animals. Wouldn't this solve the problem of discretion?
The open ended nature of the current system a) reduces the service to those truly disabled because they are lost among those who simply don't want to walk, and b) cost airlines unnecessary monies which are passed on to us. How is it extreme judgementalism to say that the airlines should not be FORCED to do something, which the individual flyer may and could do for himself.
|