[May physicians amputate a healthy limb?].
A recent article in the Dutch Journal of Medicine describes two cases of patients with body integrity identity disorder (BIID), a disorder in which patients might resort to self-amputation in order to create the body they wish for. The authors wonder if medical professionals should provide elective amputations in BIID patients in order to prevent them from harm and death. The amputation of a healthy limb in BIID in a medical context is currently under discussion. Doctors struggle to proceed to elective amputation of a healthy body part in BIID. An analogy with gender dysphoria or euthanasia might shed a different light on this dilemma.
Academisch Medisch Centrum-Universiteit van Amsterdam, afd. Psychiatrie, Amsterdam.
Damiaan
D
Denys
D000674:Amputees / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures / Q000941:ethics*; D005162:Factitious Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012652:Self Mutilation / Q000523:psychology*