Eeyore's Butterfly, I'm not talking about the types of surgeries that may be necessary, I'm talking about the ones that are for pure vanity. Breast implants or liposuction, as example. Tummy tucks after a large weight loss and corrected deviated septums may be elective, but necessary elective procedures, like the surgery you had was. I also had a surgery on my hand, I didn't need it, but I couldn't deal with the pain of it anymore. But when are breast implants medically necessary? (And I'm not talking about implants after a masectomy). A lot of the procedures done in plastic surgeries are for vanity issues. I'm not bashing anyone who had anything done, I think it's their choice and as long as they're happy and it doesn't affect me, I'm not going to judge.
But can't it be argued that people who want to go from a B cup to a D cup may have some form of BDD as well? Maybe a milder version than someone who wants to have an amputation, but it could still be some variant. The DSM is always changing, so who knows what they could decide down the road. And again, who is to say what is a disability and what's not? Maybe the person who wants an amputation feels so bad going out in public because they're not putting out who they really are, and they feel awkward and feel like everyone looking at them is a fake, so they never leave the house. That could be a disability. But once they get an amputation, they now feel "right" and are able to go outside the house and show who they are. So yes, they may have a prosthetic, but is it anymore disabling than what they may be going through before?
And then you have the people who feel so strongly about what they want, that they will go and amputate whatever it is themselves. Is it better for them to have them go at it themselves with a chainsaw, or have it be performed in a hospital, safely, with sterile precautions and anesthesia?
Look at the transgendered people who have undergone a sex change operation. If you look at a male to female transgendered, they cut off something that was probably functioning just fine, to create something that will never work the same way that a natural born female's parts will, and the sensation may be reduced with what they have. No, it's not a disability in the normal sense, but it might be a major downside for many people. Yet it's perfectly allowed for them to go through with it. Granted, there is quite a procedure that must be done first, involving psychiatric analysis and living as the desired gender, but if they are able to have the procedure done, it should stem from there that a person can have an elective amputation after a similar waiting period with psych analysis and living without the limb (tying it up so it can't be used, lets say). Maybe it's considered a psychiatric illness now, but maybe down the road, it won't be, and will go the same way as homosexuality and transgendered issues. And, interestingly, not all people that undergo a sex change operation are homosexual before the operation, which I actually find quite interesting, but that can be another thread in it of itself.
