Lived body and ethics of obesity treatment

Abstract

This article proposes a paradigm shift in the treatment of obesity. Rather than focusing exclusively on biomedical weight control, it approaches obesity as an embodied experience that raises bioethical dilemmas. Drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, the discussion reframes obesity through the ontology and epistemology of the lived body, examining how perception and corporeality shape the experience of health. Within this framework, the classical bioethical principles (autonomy, beneficence, and justice) are reconsidered in light of the embodied, intersubjective, and vulnerable realities of individuals living with obesity. The argument advances the view that a phenomenological bioethics identifies autonomy as integrated with the body, understands the clinical encounter as an interaction between embodied subjectivities, and conceives justice as attentive to stigma and to social determinants. The article concludes by proposing a relational and situated ethics of obesity that acknowledges interdependence and strengthens health policies and clinical practices that foster inclusivity and respect for bodily agency.