Body Integrity Identity Disorder and the Ethics of Mutilation

Song, Robert

Abstract

The rare phenomenon in which a person desires amputation of a healthy limb, now often termed body integrity identity disorder, raises central questions for biomedical ethics. Standard bioethical discussions of surgical intervention in such cases fail to address the meaning of bodily integrity, which is intrinsic to a theological understanding of the goodness of the body. However, moral theological responses are liable to assume that such interventions necessarily represent an implicitly docetic manipulation of the body. Through detailed attention to the ethics of mutilation and of surgery for psychiatric disorders, this article explores the theological and ethical significance of the body for human identity.

Citation

Song, R. (2013). Body Integrity Identity Disorder and the Ethics of Mutilation. Studies in Christian Ethics, 26(4), 487-503. https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946813492921

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Feb 20, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 15, 2014
• Journal: Studies in Christian Ethics
• Print ISSN: 0953-9468
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-5235
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 487-503
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946813492921
• Keywords: Body, Body integrity identity disorder, Enhancement, Ethics, Gender dysphoria, Gender identity disorder, Identity, Mutilation, Psychiatric ethics.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1512058