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Risk Factor Medicalization, Hubris, and the Obesity Disease
- Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 4, Number 2, Summer 2014
- pp. 143-146
- 10.1353/nib.2014.0043
- Article
- Additional Information
The essays on obesity in this issue frequently refer to the recent American Medical Association (AMA) declaration of obesity as a disease. In response to these essays, I describe and explore the significance of ‘risk–factor medicalization’ and how negative unintended consequences with this approach to disease modeling are exemplified in many of the essays. I also relate the essays’ content to the issue of physician hubris in the face of their own helplessness in aiding the obese patient.