Body Integrity Dysphoria: When being disabled is a desire

What if, for as long as you can remember, you’ve strongly felt as though one of your healthy limbs just doesn't belong? You’ve always wished it could be amputated.

You aren’t the only person with this feeling, but you would be one of fewer than 400 documented cases of body integrity dysphoria (BID) or body integrity identity disorder (BIID) in the world.

Meet a man with BID, who, after years of struggling with his bodily identity, traveled to Asia to have his left leg under the knee amputated.

Hear how he’s felt since the surgery, and meet a bioethicist and moral philosopher who has pondered the origin and ethics of this rare condition.

GUESTS: 

• Dr. Richard B. Gibson: A bioethicist and moral philosopher currently at the University of Texas Medical Branch. His thesis was about the ethics of elective amputations, specifically for body integrity identity disorder (BIID)
• Dan: A Wyoming man with BIID who had his left leg amputated below the knee in 2009, and started the BIID support group, “Fighting It”

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