What if being single became a disability?

I WAS scrolling through my Facebook timeline when I chance upon a post shared by a friend. Apparently, the World Health Organization (WHO) had considered being single as a disability.

At first it baffled me, thinking it was a joke, but upon searching in Google and finding articles written in foreign news sites, the WHO indeed considered single men and women as disabled before.

Keyword: before.

In 2016, according to an article published by The Telegraph, a national British daily newspaper, the WHO made a move to change the definition of infertility wherein single men and women without medical issues and who have not found a sexual partner to have children with will be classed as "infertile."

"The authors of the new global standards said the revised definition gave every individual 'the right to reproduce,'" the article said.

At present, WHO has defined "infertility" as "a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more regular unprotected sexual intercourse."

WHO also said infertility "generates disability (an impairment of function), and thus access to health care falls under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability."

Reading all these stories on the topic of being single as a disability (and there are tons of it on the internet), makes you think "what if WHO was successful in its move to change the definition of infertility?"

Does this mean I could've applied for a PWD ID card? And yes, the implication that I am single (and happy to stay this way forever) is there.

Joking aside, if being single indeed became a disability, further disagreements are bound to happen apart from the arguments back in 2016.

A friend of mine named Ela Adame reacted negatively after hearing of WHO move, saying that there are women and men who prioritize careers over starting a family.

"Just like in Japan, the decline of the birth rate is related to the single people who prioritized their careers over love life, especially women. Therefore, I conclude, being single is not a disability but a choice and also a priority," Adame said.

Personally, I think its eccentric for such notion to happen as everyone already has the right to or not to reproduce. Men and women get to decide whether they are ready to have a child or children of their own or not.

Besides, in this day in age, there are people who consider themselves as asexual, someone who has no sexual feelings or desires, which make reproduction almost not a possibility to them.

Fortunately, WHO's move to redefine infertility did not push through. Nevertheless, it’s somehow enlightening that cases such as this actually happened before.

Trending

No stories found.

Just in

No stories found.

Branded Content

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph