Defining "disease"--classification must be distinguished from evaluation.

The term "disease" is discussed with reference to the issues raised by Ian Kennedy in his 1980 Reith Lectures on medical ethics and the definition proposed by Campbell, Scadding, and Roberts. Toon suggests a revised set of definitions based on a distinction between "diseasedness", the opposite of health, and the disease categories used in medicine to distinguish conditions needing specific treatment. It is important to differentiate between decisions calling for medical judgment and those involving ethical and political factors, with which Kennedy was concerned in his lectures.