Obesity 'could be a disability' - EU courts rule

[fakenamefornow]

What do you think?

I'm not sure this is a helpful development. I think we should be helping people lose weight, this seems to make it easier for them to stay fat.

[fakenamefornow]

Sorry link www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30529791

[FloozeyLoozey]

Out of interest is anorexia seen as a disability? It all depends on whether or not you see obesity as something that a person can help, ie did they cause it themselves or is it not their fault?

[Fixerupperz]

This is not a good move at all. Ever.

[fakenamefornow]

I also wonder how it will affect airlines?

[lljkk]

Anorexia is an illness (so is, reasonably thinking, binge-eating disorders). Are chronically ill people protected groups under minority protection legislation? What about diabetics or schizophrenics, why not make them protected groups too? Would they be entitled to DLA? Mind boggles. How about being alive? That's a chronic condition that causes lots of problems until death.

[fakenamefornow]

This is interesting (and shocking) to see where you fit.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18770328

[yetanotherchangename]

Can we postpone fat bashing until after Christmas please?

[TheGashlycrumbTinies]

Great link Fake

I am the most like the average in Vietnam.

[fakenamefornow]

So, any mention of obesity is fat bashing?

[thenightsky]

I'm most like someone from Afghanistan.

[Fixerupperz]

I am just below obese, not because I have a disability but because of my lifestyle choices. I don't see this as fat bashing at all.

[lljkk]

on radio 5 now.... "is it an serious impairment likely to last for at least another year?"

Oh well, then, obviously alcoholics & drug addicts belong in the protected group, too.
And EMO people. They suffer lots of prejudice, obviously.
Sex addicts, compulsive gamblers, binge drinkers, political extremists.

[fakenamefornow]

I got Vietnam too!

Well, first I got Bhutan then I made myself an inch taller and got Vietnam. I'm on the half inch so wasn't cheating

[Orangeanddemons]

Diabetics and schizophrenics are covered under the disability at work act I believe. Any illness which has an effect on performance and is long term is classed as a disabilty

[lljkk]

has "an effect" or a severe effect? What's the legal test for significant enough.

I have occasional low days tied to a history of depression. Do I count?

[dinkydonut123]

both anorexia and bulimia are classified as major mental health problems.

[dinkydonut123]

both anorexia and bulimia are classified as major mental health problems, but not necessarily causing a disability...(posted too soon )

[IcicleTree]

Obesity and anorexia cannot be compared in the same way in my opinion. If being obese is an illness, then 1 in 4 people in the uk are classed as being ill. I don't agree that this is an illness in all these people, it is a social problem. Those with compulsive eating disorders are rare, the rest really could lose weight if they wanted to. We have to change they way food is viewed in the uk, it needs to remain socially unacceptable, accepting it as the norm to be fat is the danger. Making allowances for obesity in the same way we do for those with unavoidable disabilities isn't the way forward to me!

[whattheseithakasmean]

OMG - 91% of women in my age range have a higher BMI - and I'm not skinny.

I don't think tinkering about with classifications of disability really addresses the issue, which is that the developed world seems to be eating itself to death.

[fakenamefornow]

Any illness which has an effect on performance and is long term is classed as a disabilty

imo being fat isn't an illness.

the developed world seems to be eating itself to death

Look at the second link I posted, it's not just the developed world.

[YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually]

Just a point to make - you can be disabled without being "ill".

As someone who is disabled (and ill) through an unavoidable medical issue, I find this ruling hard to accept. I do know of course that people can become obese for all sorts of reasons, some of which the person has no control over, steroid medication for example. Still, it's hard for me to reconcile affording someone the same rights and legal status over a condition that they have the ability to either control or remove. I don't have that choice and I feel it is unfair. It's hard for me to articulate exactly how I feel so I will watch this thread with interest.

[IcicleTree]

Yes, I agree YesI, being disabled doesn't always mean being ill, however I was responding to those that say obesity results from a form of mental illness.

[YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually]

I know IcicleTree, there was a few posts along that line though.

[TalkinPeace]

Economically this will be really bad for small businesses.
NOT what the EU needs
Or what its ever widening population needs

[dalekanium]

Crikey. Rwanda.