{"id":1959288,"date":"2023-06-28T13:51:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T17:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-york-times-ethicist-counsels-reader-to-ignore-obesity\/"},"modified":"2023-06-28T13:53:43","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T17:53:43","slug":"new-york-times-ethicist-counsels-reader-to-ignore-obesity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-york-times-ethicist-counsels-reader-to-ignore-obesity\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT Ethicist advises reader to overlook obesity."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-york-times-ethicist-counsels-reader-to-ignore-obesity%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1959288&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<div>\n<figure>\n    <\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Poetic Justice: A Better Advice Column<\/h2>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/poetic-justice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Poetic Justice<\/a> is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dear-prudence-dump-your-therapist-if-shes-not-hysterical-about-climate-change\/\" title=\"Dear Prudence: Dump Your Therapist If She\u2019s Not Hysterical About Climate Change\">advice column<\/a> that offers better advice to submissions at other publications whose advice has failed the reader.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>When Ignoring the Problem Isn&#8217;t the Solution<\/h3>\n<p>The Ethicist columnist for the New York Times counseled a reader anxious about a close friend\u2019s weight to ignore the problem altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, a reader wrote to the paper\u2019s appointed \u201cethicist,\u201d Kwame Anthony Appiah, to seek advice on how to approach a friend of half a century over their dangerously deteriorating health. Here\u2019s what they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/06\/23\/magazine\/obesity-intervention-ethics.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>My friend of 50 years has recently become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/more-than-73-of-americans-who-died-of-covid-19-were-obese-or-overweight-cdc-data\/\" title=\"More Than 73% Of Americans Who Died Of COVID-19 Were Obese Or Overweight: CDC Data\">morbidly obese<\/a>. She now must be 100-plus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ag-ferguson-mandates-booster-for-staff-but-most-covid-infections-hit-the-vaccinated\/\" title=\"AG Ferguson Mandates Booster for Staff, but Most COVID Infections Hit the Vaccinated\">pounds overweight<\/a> on a very small frame. She has great difficulty breathing, and her legs are bowed out from being crushed under her weight. She can no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-york-times-ethicist-counsels-reader-to-ignore-obesity\/\" title=\"NYT Ethicist advises reader to overlook obesity.\">longer perform simple household tasks<\/a> like cleaning.<\/p>\n<p>I love my friend, and have tried several times to speak to her gently about her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-more-than-200k-illegal-immigrant-encounters-in-july\/\" title=\"Report: More than 200K illegal immigrant encounters in July\">worsening condition<\/a>. But to no avail. She says she cannot afford the new diet-drug-by-injection everyone is using; she has given up trying to lose the weight any other way.<\/p>\n<p>Food is her drug. It is clear she lives for it as an addict would. She steadfastly refuses to talk to me or her family about it. She apparently skirts around the issue when talking to her primary-care provider, and nothing ever changes: Her weight continues to go up.<\/p>\n<p>I have thought about approaching her children about this. But if that doesn\u2019t work, and the children tell my friend I tried to intervene, I am sure that would be the end of our friendship. She has told me, \u201cDon\u2019t talk to me about this.\u201d What, if anything, can I do to help her? I am watching her kill herself slowly. \u2014 Name Withheld.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Appiah recommended the reader respect her friend\u2019s wishes to steer clear of the subject.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnlike her primary-care provider, you have no special knowledge of complex conditions. (One such complexity: the vicious cycle that can arise between depression and obesity.)\u201d Appiah wrote. \u201cYou may not be the right person to make a difference here. She has explicitly asked you not to raise the issue with her. As someone who cares about her, you obviously have reason to want her to get healthier. But you can\u2019t insist on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish she\u2019d listen to you,\u201d the columnist added. \u201cBut as her friend, you also have to listen to her \u2014 and take notice of the boundaries she has set.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But would Appiah also offer the same advice to the friend of a cocaine addict?<\/p>\n<p>Excess weight is no doubt an emotional issue, hence why there\u2019s a growing movement underway to destigmatize obesity as an effort to be \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/body-positivity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">body positive<\/a>.\u201d While often promoted with good intentions, there\u2019s a point wherein such positivity becomes incredibly toxic.<\/p>\n<p>Sugar, which is laced in nearly everything at the modern American supermarket, is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/482027a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">toxic substance<\/a> that, when consumed in high levels, has been found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC1931610\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more rewarding<\/a> than cocaine. The reader even conceded of their friend, \u201cfood is her drug,\u201d adding it\u2019s \u201cclear she lives for it as an addict would.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am watching her kill herself slowly,\u201d the reader noted, just as a drug addict would.<\/p>\n<p>A study published in the journal Population Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder in February found obesity <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/02\/28\/new-study-finds-that-obesity-raises-risk-of-early-death-by-90-percent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raises<\/a> the risk of early mortality by as much as 90 percent. The danger is real. Obesity also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/healthyweight\/effects\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">carries<\/a> with it a plethora of life-long complications ranging from type 2 diabetes and hypertension to \u201cmany types of cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the reader has really been friends with the person whom she wrote about for 50 years, it\u2019s worth the effort to keep trying. Even if, God willing, death were successfully delayed a few decades, no one wants to live like Brendan Fraser\u2019s character in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/01\/19\/for-the-sake-of-our-health-keep-the-body-positivity-movement-away-from-the-whale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Whale<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>[READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/01\/19\/for-the-sake-of-our-health-keep-the-body-positivity-movement-away-from-the-whale\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">For The Sake Of Our Health, Keep The \u2018Body Positivity\u2019 Movement Away From \u2018The Whale\u2019<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s neither ethical nor compassionate to give up on friends struggling with drug addiction.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan&#8217;s email newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/socialjusticeredux.substack.com\/about\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Poetic Justice provides improved guidance to readers whose previous advice from other publications has proven ineffective. The New York Times&#8217; Ethicist columnist, Kwame Anthony Appiah, recently advised a concerned reader to disregard their friend&#8217;s weight issue. In response, a reader sought Poetic Justice&#8217;s counsel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":1959289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1959288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1959288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1959289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1959288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1959288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1959288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}