Man claimed £18,500 disability benefits after willingly having healthy leg amputated

submitted by jet199 from theguardian.com

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[–]Hematomato 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Should a child who has severe body integrity dysphoria be allowed to have their limbs amputated u/hematomato ? What if they say they will kill themselves unless they have their legs cut off?

That's a very good question. You apparently think the answer is obvious. I don't.

A doctor's job is to increase the quality of life of their patient. If every day is a living Hell for the patient because they feel like their left arm is this grotesque growth that doesn't belong, and no other treatment is effective, and they don't even want to live with that fucking thing attached to them, well, surgery might be the most reasonable option.

And I just don't think 18 is a magical number. "Oh, you're 16, so you have to have that growth making you crazy and despondent and suicidal for two more years, but after that we're good to go." Why? Because our society decided that 18 is magical? Anyone who's met 18 year olds know that as a group they're not particularly smarter or wiser than 16 year olds.

[–]package 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Chopping off perfectly functional organs is not ever going to improve someone's quality of life.

[–]Hematomato 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Except that we know that isn't true. There are people out there whose quality of life is so low due to dysmorphia that they don't want to live. Which is the absolute rock-bottom quality of life.

If you take someone from "I don't want to live" to "now I want to live," that is an improvement.

[–]package 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Before chopping off an organ the possibility exists that a patient may come to accept the body they were born with and go on to live a normal life. Even if they don't, the blame for their unhappiness lies squarely on forces outside of their control. No harm has been done.

After chopping off an organ, however, a patient is now locked out of the possibility of accepting how they were born. They now must come to terms with the fact that they have done irreversible damage to themselves and that they themselves are to blame for their unhappiness.

I'm no psycologist but the latter outcome sounds far more unhealthy IMO, and that's not even considering the serious lifelong health implications of these sorts of surgeries.

[–]Hematomato 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think it's strictly case-by-case. Of course the ideal outcome is that a patient gets over their dysmorphia and accepts their body.

And sometimes that can happen. Sometimes therapy can help it happen. But sometimes the ideal is just off the table. Sometimes we simply don't have any method or any tech that will make it happen.

And it's a doctor's job to know the difference. Not a politician's, not an Internet armchair philosopher's, a doctor's.