A WSJ editorial reminded me of an annoyance which seems less and less petty:
This winter, the American Medical Association classified obesity as a disability. We need to make up our minds. We cannot logically on the one hand widen a definition of disability to include an unlimited number of conditions in order to legislate protection, and then on the other hand claim that it is morally permissible to prevent those with a disability from being born or to assist in killing them once they are here.
Whether obesity should be a disability or not, the problem is that under the ADA, fat people will now be entitled to preferential parking as a matter of right.
I’m all for leaving people alone, and I am against shaming people, but this is the sort of thing that is guaranteed to cause resentment.
Americans are generally benevolent towards disabled citizens, and no one wants to see, say, a quadriplegic person struggle over parking and getting out of a car, only to then have to maneuver his wheelchair for a long distance simply to get to his destination. But the same fair minded people are unlikely to see a fat person the same way, and will perceive this as unfair.
I think it is a typical example of bureaucratic mission creep.
Comments
4 responses to “We’re all for wheelchair parking, right?”
What idiots at the AMA were coerced into making obesity in and of itself a disability? There was a time when gluttony was one the 7 Deadly Sins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins
Now you’re a disabled victim, which explains why I have to push my sister-in-law in her wheel chair throughout Walmart because all of the electric carts are being used by 350 lb. blubber pusses.
I think it is a typical example of bureaucratic mission creep.
That’s why I propose the Cabinet-level Bureau of Redundancy Department (the Bird), their purpose is to trim other bureaucracies. Flip ’em the Bird.
That would be beautiful IMO.
Use one bureaucracy to trim other bureaucracies. The bigger the Bird, the smaller the rest of the gov’t.
Cloward-Piven strategy + Gramscian social bolshevism = this.
We are moving to a point where EVERYONE in this country is legally disabled in one way or another. 2/3 of all Americans are now overweight or obese. Osteoarthritis is a disability. Everyone over the age of 60 has osteoarthritis to some degree. I am 68 years old. Am I disabled because I am old?