Epileptic or Person with epilepsy? Epilepsy Survey
During this quarter, we asked website visitors to give us their opinion on how to call someone who has epilepsy What do you think a person with epilepsy should be called? Epileptic or person with epilepsy?
The results are in:
We received 50 votes
40% thought that someone diagnosed with epilepsy should be called an “epileptic.”
60% thought that someone diagnosed with epilepsy should be called a “person with epilepsy.”
There is no right answer. However, it has been suggested that the term “epileptic” is troubling in that is defines a whole person based on a single trait. Labels such as this can overshadow the entirety of the person and not only affect how others see the person with epilepsy but also how the person sees her/his self. It is for this reason that there is a push to change what someone who has epilepsy from “epileptic” to “person with epilepsy.” That same movement supports using “person with epilepsy” because that suggests that epilepsy is just one aspect of the very rich complexity of that person. As you can see, the jury is still out as to which term is preferred. What do you think?
