Obesity

Obesity is a complex disease state. Granted. However, obesity itself is not genetic. It is not the same as genetic skin color, genetic sexual characteristics, or genetic sexual orientation. Genetic disposition to fat accumulation may facilitate the development of obesity, but obesity itself is a state of being which does not develop on its own under normal conditions. In other words, if you have intelligence and a normally functioning brain/body, you bear some responsibility for being unhealthily fat. In societies with medical infrastructure, obesity is a readily treatable disease, if a patient adheres to treatment. 

A misguided legislator here in Massachusetts has introduced legislation making it illegal to discriminate in employment on the basis of obesity. This is simply ridiculous. Think for a moment. A grossly obese man or woman with previous experience or a trade certificate applies for a construction job in which he/she must climb ladders, carry heavy weight and maneuver in precarious spaces at high altitudes. He/she is an industrial accident and medical emergency in the making, even in normal daily activity. never mind strenuous construction work. Why should employers be forced to take on that risk against their interests and the interests of getting the job done well?

As a nurse, I have dealt with obese patients throughout my career. My care for these patients centered most commonly on the side effects of their obesity. Heart disease, diabetes, amputations, skin ulcers, respiratory distress, paralysis, stroke, fractures, etc.. Relatively young men and women with otherwise normal bodies who allowed themselves to become incapacitated by obesity. The defensiveness and anger at having this pointed out is a function of the disease. It is off-putting, as are most defenses of the dysfunctional. Enabling this denial of responsibility, however, enables the disease; it does not address it for the good of the obese person or society.