Bioethics & Philosophy seminar: The line drawing problem is your problem too
The line drawing problem is your problem too - John Matthewson
There is a well-known "line drawing" problem for accounts of disease that are based on biological dysfunction. Such accounts are generally expected to deliver binary results. However, most biological attributes come in degrees. In turn, this seems to require that we classify particular values of these attributes as functional or dysfunctional. We might suspect that dividing lines merely reflect our interests, rather than any established biological facts or principles. The best response here may be to just acknowledge that disease definitions can rely on socially determined criteria.