Rare, but true; there is a phenomena called “Body-Integrity-Identity-Disorder-Syndrome”, and a person having this has the wish to depend on a wheelchair, no longer feel his or her legs, hence they feel like their body, the way it is is not correct. These people feel certain body parts as disturbing and misplaced. An operation leading to the wanted result will cost approximately 25.000 Dollar. Many peoples suffering from this disorder are aware of it since childhood, and when growing older, they live their life according to their desire. Some use a wheelchair, although they can walk, avoid Polio vaccinations, in the hope to get Polio. For most of the people, the cost of the operation is not affordable, and the British Medical Association succeeded to prohibit operations on healthy people without medical reason, which would force people who have the capital to travel to countries where the laws are more liberal. This happened after the Scottish doctor Robert Smith amputated the legs of two Body-Integrity-Identity-Disorder-Syndrome patients in the year 2000. The approach was to give peoples psychological support, but although psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatments can improve the perception of the body and the general condition, but the persons feeling that something is wrong, can not be cured. Chloe Jennings-White, a women from the United States of America is one of the people with the Body-Integrity-Identity-Disorder-Syndrome. Personally having no funds for an operation, yet having openly come out, she stated towards “The Sun” that she could not understand why some people are reacting with incomprehension and grief, as her personal happiness in life depends on such an operation.

The question here is, if it is right to let humans suffer, even risking that that person could perform self mutilation, or wouldn't it be better to let the person have self determination regarding his or her body.

Transsexual people, for example, have come a long way, for many countries now to accept this form of gender identity, having even health insurances paying for the sex change operation, or at least allowing doctors to treat the person with hormones and operate as the final step. Yet how many tragic cases did this have to go through, until people could “come out” as transgender and no longer have to suffer, facing psychological problems. Many will ask where the boarder line is, or if it is moral, especially from a religious view. From the humanist perspective, self determination is one of the main Human Rights.

There is no standardized moral view, as every human is different, and as long as it does not harm or interfere with the self determination of an other human being, there cannot be judgment upon. Any claim after this statement is no longer a part of a universal reality, but automatically belongs to a selective belief and faith system, which has no authority over non followers or members and the individual right to decide for oneself.

By Thomas Fleckner