Comments on: BIID, recognised diagnosis and related issues. http://transabled.org/thoughts/sean-thoughts/biid-recognised-diagnosis-and-related-issues.htm Talking about Body Integrity Identity Disorder - Just another disability! Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:50:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Sean http://transabled.org/thoughts/sean-thoughts/biid-recognised-diagnosis-and-related-issues.htm/comment-page-1#comment-15700 Sean Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:04:24 +0000 http://transabled.org/?p=758#comment-15700 Nobody, I guess the answer to your question is "probably". But the fact is, getting a spinal cord injury is far from impossible. It's just near impossible to safely give yourself one at the required level. Your rethorical question, however, is just that. I cannot trully know the answer to it because you talk about a hypothetical situation. A bit like if you were asking if, given the chance, I would like to go to Romulus on the Enterprise. Well, yeah, I think so, but it's one of those things we'll never know because Romulus doesn't exist (sorry to shatter your illusions, you Trekkies ;) ) Nobody, I guess the answer to your question is “probably”. But the fact is, getting a spinal cord injury is far from impossible. It’s just near impossible to safely give yourself one at the required level. Your rethorical question, however, is just that. I cannot trully know the answer to it because you talk about a hypothetical situation. A bit like if you were asking if, given the chance, I would like to go to Romulus on the Enterprise. Well, yeah, I think so, but it’s one of those things we’ll never know because Romulus doesn’t exist (sorry to shatter your illusions, you Trekkies ;) )

]]> By: Nobody http://transabled.org/thoughts/sean-thoughts/biid-recognised-diagnosis-and-related-issues.htm/comment-page-1#comment-15699 Nobody Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:43:34 +0000 http://transabled.org/?p=758#comment-15699 Here's a point about the difference between BIID and "traditional" undesired disability, and coming to terms with one's situation. With BIID, the person feels complete only with a disability. With traditional disability, maybe the person feels incomplete because they have a disability. The difference is, with traditional disability, especially in the case of paralysis, modern medicine has no effective method of "curing" the disability. The person has no rational basis for hope of getting rid of the disability, and thus no hope of feeling complete. People have no choice but to live with their situation. (Maybe this difficulty contributes to the statistically shorter lifespans of people who are paralyzed.) With BIID, it is easy to understand exactly how the needed disability could be acquired. So, holding on to hope seems reasonable, because... Modern medicine has the technological capacity (and the duty) to safely help people feel at home in their own bodies without mind-altering substances, yet bestowing this boon is not allowed (except for cosmetic surgery, gender reassignment surgery, defect repair surgery, injury repair surgery, etc). However, while feeling uncomfortable in one's own skin is toturous enough, this knowledge of treatment unjustifiably denied compounds the suffering of a person with BIID. Sean, if there truly were no way to acquire what you need, and no basis to hope for it, would your situation be in any way less difficult to deal with? Here’s a point about the difference between BIID and “traditional” undesired disability, and coming to terms with one’s situation.

With BIID, the person feels complete only with a disability.
With traditional disability, maybe the person feels incomplete because they have a disability.

The difference is, with traditional disability, especially in the case of paralysis, modern medicine has no effective method of “curing” the disability.
The person has no rational basis for hope of getting rid of the disability, and thus no hope of feeling complete. People have no choice but to
live with their situation. (Maybe this difficulty contributes to the statistically shorter lifespans of people who are paralyzed.)

With BIID, it is easy to understand exactly how the needed disability could be acquired. So, holding on to hope seems reasonable, because…

Modern medicine has the technological capacity (and the duty) to safely help people feel at home in their own bodies without mind-altering substances, yet bestowing this boon is not allowed (except for cosmetic surgery, gender reassignment surgery, defect repair surgery, injury repair surgery, etc). However, while feeling uncomfortable in one’s own skin is toturous enough, this knowledge of treatment unjustifiably denied compounds the suffering of a person with BIID.

Sean, if there truly were no way to acquire what you need, and no basis to hope for it, would your situation be in any way less difficult to deal with?

]]>