Is Obesity Really a Disability?

In my previous post, I blogged about an overweight man who missed his uncle's funeral because there were no empty extra seats for him to buy. This led to the question of whether or not obesity really is a disability or not.

It may very well be that overweight people should be considered disabled. It is more than probable that factors other than will power and discipline play a role in weight gain; and I should know. At my largest I was 440 lbs. While I weigh much less now, I only lost it after bariatric surgery. At the same time, I know that the path I took to that weight was not an instantaneous one. If I had been motivated enough to become active at any point before it got out of hand, I'm certain it never would have gotten as bad as it did. My love of food and laziness ensured I would balloon out. Of course it was only once it was out of hand that I tried to change things. At that point, it was like trying to reverse the sun's course.

Because of my experience, I hesitate to just slap the disabled tag on the obese. I'm sure that there are plenty of glandular problems, plenty of addiction problems, and plenty of emotional problems that some people have no control over. These could very well lead to obesity, and if so, these people would be disabled. At the same time, there are plenty of people who will huddle under the disability umbrella, who were like me. Lazy, unmotivated, and eating everything they shouldn't. I was lucky. I was able to get the surgery. Plenty though, cannot. And once they reach a certain point, they are, for all intents and purposes, disabled.

Which is why this issue is so problematic. When does personal responsibility kick in? How do we as a society decide whether a person's weight is unavoidable, or if the individual is to blame? Should society even make that distinction?

We might not like it, but we will be forced to, especially as more and more overweight people decide that their weight is not their fault. I suspect the end result will be that all overweight people, no matter the cause, will end up on the disabled list. Trying to figure out the root cause of a person's obesity, if it is even possible, would be too time consuming, as well as a logistical nightmare. Easier to just paint them all with the disabled brush and be done with it. The shame is that so many will opt to play the victim.

Is This Weight Discrimination?

When Okamoni Fa tried to book a flight to make his uncle's funeral, he was told he would need to book an extra seat. Unfortunately for him, the flight was full and there were no extra seats to be had. Mr. Fa never got his flight and as a result missed the funeral. (Full story here.)

The article makes no mention of Fa actually claiming discrimination, though he is understandably upset about the outcome. This is by no means an isolated incident however. Airlines have been imposing these types of regulations for awhile now. Just this past April, United Airlines instituted a new policy, that mandates the same thing. Our neighbor to the north took exception to these trends recently, ruling that obesity is a disability and therefore the airlines have to give the overweight an extra seat for free.

Is this really discrimination? Or is it a reality that people need to face? From what little I know about planes, it makes sense from a profit stand point. After all, a plane can only carry so much weight. If one person, buying one ticket, weighs as much as two, then the airline is out a ticket price. Making them buy that extra ticket ensures the airline makes the money it would otherwise. Assuming that the plane was full of course. On the other hand, if obesity really is a disability, don't the airlines have an obligation to make them accessible to everyone without added cost?

The thorn is, as always, deciding whether obesity really is a disability or not. I'll dive into this in the next post.