Denton 1 Kaison Denton Professor Connie Douglas English 1102-93 12 February 2014 Is Obesity a Disease?

In these articles from 2001, Drs. PG Kpoelman, N Finer, S Heshka, and DB Allison, all discuss the different viewpoints that arise when the issue of obesity is at hand. The article by Drs. Kopelman and Finer is a reply to the article first written by Drs. Heshka and Allison. Drs. Kopelman and Finer support the side of the argument that agrees that obesity is indeed a disease, while Drs. Heshka and Allison support the side that believes obesity isnt a disease. The articles are presented to the concerned citizens worrying about obesity and whether or not it is a disease. In the article Reply: Is obesity a disease by PG Kopelman and N Finer, which is a reply to the article from Drs. Heshka and Allisons article, the authors start out by saying We are grateful for the opportunity to respond to Drs. Heshka and Allisons paper suggesting that they mean no disrespect to the other authors even though they disagree with their viewpoint. This gives them somewhat of an advantage to start with because they have the opportunity to go back and see what the other authors said and state their viewpoint on it. The way this article is organized is very complex, it begins by giving thanks for the opportunity to write the article and then states the opposite side in which is being argued. It gives good examples of why the other authors were correct in what they are saying, such as when they said nobody has ever given an actual definition

Denton 2 of a disease, which is one on the most important rules of argumentative writing; knowing the other side of the argument. The strengths of this article are the knowledge of the oppositions argument; such as, when they say A condition of the body, its parts, organs or systems, or and alteration thereof, Heshka and Allison accept that obesity satisfies the definition. The weakness is the clarity of the article. The article has many statistics in it and many abbreviations that only informed doctors would understand. This would be good if the article were directed toward a group of authors, but it is directed toward concerned citizens. In the article by S Heshka and DB Allsion, they support the argument that obesity is not a disease. The main argument in this article is the fact that all other arguments on obesity have stated obesity as a disease, but have never given enough elaboration on what a disease really is or why obesity is one. This does address the opposition, but very vaguely. Again, this article is an informative article to the public and is still very unclear in some aspects. These doctors are using words that only other doctors would understand, such as when they say The World Health Organization (WHO) and their extensive codification of diseases in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9, 9th edition), contains two entries for obesity: 278.00 (obesity NOS), and 278.01 (morbid obesity). Most normal citizens with an average education level would not understand these facts as they are stated, which is one of the weaknesses of this article. The strength of this article is the main point. Until PG Kopelman and N Finer replied to this article, no single article really did explain why obesity is classified as a disease. They are all very vague when it comes to this.

Denton 3 PG Kopelman and N Finer presented the better argument out these two articles because they addressed the other side of the argument, and elaborate on each point. They had a bit of an advantage while doing this because they were doing a reply to another article, but they still did a fine job in doing so. The authors that most likely appealed to the audience more are Drs. Heshka and Allison, because they pointed out that no single article or person has really addressed the fact of why obesity is a disease, which probably changed some of the public or concerned citizens outlook on this argument. These articles both imply that America needs to do more research and more testing to prove whether or not obesity really is a disease.

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Works Cited
Kopelman, P G; Finer, N. International Journal of Obesity & Related Metabolic Disorders. Oct2001, Vol. 25 Issue 10, p1405. 2p.

S Heshka, New York Obesity Research Center, St. Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital, 1090 Amsterdam Avenue, 14C, New York, NY 10025, USA