I’m not a “diabetic”
If you have diabetes, do you think of yourself as “a diabetic” or as “a person with diabetes”? Or maybe you prefer “pancreatically challenged”?
For years, I’ve hated the term “diabetic” when it is used as a noun. For example, “I’m a diabetic.” is a statement you’ll never hear me say. I don’t like the “diabetic” noun because it implies that I’m defined in terms of what it means to have diabetes. To me, the term “a person with diabetes” means I’m first and foremost a person just like everyone else, but I also happen to have diabetes.
At the same time, I’ve never made a big deal of my opinion on this subject. I didn’t want to appear defensive, touchy or ashamed of having diabetes.
Well, now I’ve done some informal research on this subject. I searched for diabetes-related online journals. Of the ones that had a page with guidelines for authors, they all said to avoid using “diabetic” as a noun. The American Diabetes Association, in the instructions for authors for diabetes, the journal of the American Diabetes Association, unequivocably states:
Diabetic should not be used as a noun.
I’ve found some discussion online supporting the term “diabetic” too, so clearly there’s not complete agreement on this subject.
I’d be interested in hearing other opinions on this subject, so I put together a very quick survey:
In a few days, I’ll post the results here.
August 29th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
PETE… I’m so glad you mentioned this. I’m not fixated on being “politically correct”, but I find it very disturbing when my son, whom I know and love very much, is referred to as “an autistic”.
It’s only happened a couple of times, but it really does have a de-huminizing effect that literally makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
The director of the utah parent center ( http://www.utahparentcenter.org ) lives in my neighborhood, and recently told to me that they always talk about the person first, and the caracteristics of any disability or challenges second.
Since then, I’ve even gone one step further than the “noun” problem you mentioned, and I try to even avoid the adjective. I always try to refer to “my son with autism” rather than “my autistic son”. It just sounds better to me.