During the early stages of development, our gender identity (the feeling of being a man or a woman) and our sexual orientation (homo, hetero, or bi-sexuality) are programmed in the brain, as is our body image. An unusual disorder of this last process is Body Integrity Identity Disorder.

People with Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) feel from an early age that part of their body does not belong to them and they want to get rid of it, no matter what the cost. They do not accept a particular limb as part of their body, even if it there’s nothing wrong with it.

This leads to an overpowering desire for amputation. Only once their leg or arm has been amputated, and 27 percent of these people manage to achieve this, do they feel “complete”. Surgeons who carry out these requests run the risk of being condemned for amputating a healthy limb. This is strange, as the same thing happens with transsexuals, and even, if we’re talking about the principle, when a circumcision is performed.

Lees verder »