by Sean - 11 April 2008
I have been speaking with a disability rights activist on and off for the last several weeks about BIID, transabled issues, and how it all relates to the disability community. She has changed her views significantly and I think that she has gotten to the point where she *gets* BIID. She is telling me, however, that there is still an issue that many of her friends are voicing - they believe because we get to chose when to deal with the physical aspects of disability, our experience of disability is invalidated (no pun intended).
Choice, experience, authenticity and oppression. continues »
by Sean - 10 April 2008
There’s been discussions about ethics surrounding BIID. One of the discussions was about a "code of ethics" for medical professionals treating transabled individuals presenting to the Emergency Department with self-inflicted injuries. Other discussions focus on whether or not it would be ethical to provide surgery as an accepted treatment option for people who have Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID). I won’t cover the first one, as that could use an entire post or three on its own, and in fact, I shan’t build an argument about the ethics of a surgical solution, but it is important to consider the background of the people having these discussions.
BIID ethics, schmetics continues »
by Dante - 8 April 2008
So I’ve finally told myself the truth and understand (well a little bit at least) that I’m affected by BIID. The truth…it is usually a wonderful thing. Speaking the truth allows us to trust one another and allows modern-day society to function. Some people say, it will ‘set you free’ as well. I’d like to smack that person upside the head.
Compass Pointing South continues »
by Sean - 7 April 2008
There seems to be quite a bit of academic interest in BIID. Several papers have come out in the last 18 or so months, and I’m aware of a couple that are in draft form. But all this writing is done by sociologists, and rethoricians. There’s not a whole lot written about the topic by bio-ethicists, which would be interesting, but one wonders if it would, in fact, be helpful.
Academic writing about BIID. continues »
by Sean - 6 April 2008
I’ve been IM’ed by someone recently that is after something entirely different than I am. This person obviously wants to just talk about fantasy and make-belief. At first, I was told he wanted to be a paraplegic. Then he told me he wanted to be a DAK. Then he went on to tell me about his wife helping him back in his wheelchair when he "fell" out of it. Quite frankly, this kind of talk is fine if it works for you, but I have no time for it. These are the kind of people who, in my opinion, give transabled people a bad name. They don’t live in the real world, they are not interested in the reality of having a disability - fantasy land is where they’re at.
Protect me from people who live in la-la-land continues »