“Transabled” People Are Becoming Disabled By Choice

By Lina Bryce

While the idea that an individual can be transgendered is becoming more widely accepted in society, we understand that an individual has the right to do what they want with their own body, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. But, what if the person didn’t like their arm, leg, or ear? Is it okay to have them surgically removed, become legally blind, deaf, or disabled by choice?

These are individuals that are so uncomfortable with the existence of their limbs that they seem foreign to their own bodies. It’s called being “transabled,” otherwise known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder, (BDD, body dysmorphia, dysmorphic syndrome, or dysmorphophobia) a condition in which a person has the belief that one’s own appearance is defective and needs to be corrected or fixed.

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BDD leads to obsessive thoughts on methods of changing the “defect,” to the point that it can become overwhelming. Nearly 50% of those who are diagnosed with BDD will spend over three hours a day obsessing over methods which they think could correct or conceal what they believe to be flaws in their anatomy.

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In Ottawa, a man who now goes by the name of “One Hand Jason“, wanted so much to change that he cut off his right arm with a “very sharp power tool,” letting everyone believe it was an accident. Months prior to doing so, he confessed on a body modification website that he had tried cutting and crushing the limb in many ways for months. He had even trained himself in first aid so that he wouldn’t bleed to death in the process, admitting to practicing on animal parts from a butcher beforehand.

“My goal was to get the job done with no hope of reconstruction or re-attachment”, he said. “I wanted some method that I could actually bring myself to do” he posted on the blog.

People like Jason who are classified as ‘transabled’’ want to, in essence, become disabled.

Clive Baldwin, a Canada Research Chair in Narrative Studies who teaches social work at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B., has interviewed 37 people worldwide who identify as transabled. Baldwin stated in the National Post that in most cases they are men who crave amputation or paralysis. He has interviewed one person who wants his penis removed and another who wants to be blind.

They insist it is not a mental disorder, a condition that is not much different from being transgendered, but is it really the same?

It is difficult to come to terms with those who claim to draw similar parallels to the transgender experience, outside of their possibly mutual feeling that their body does not feel like their own. I think it is insulting, as their choice doesn’t harm or impact anyone. I would argue that choosing to become disabled does, however.

In a society that has recently moved towards a more socialized healthcare system, a person who chooses to become disabled becomes a financial burden to the American people, therefore, it becomes a political issue. The primary difference, as I see it, is that transgendered individuals do not require social benefits after they achieve their desired sex change. Although they have changed their sex by choice, they are not left with a handicap or disability.

If BDD can’t be considered a mental disorder, as some suggest that lobbing off healthy legs and becoming permanently disabled is a lifestyle preference, it will still be considered a disability in the eyes of the government, as that person can no longer walk. This would entitle them to financial compensation from the government (our taxes). The outcome will be a strong resistance-not because of the opinion that someone shouldn’t cut off a perfectly healthy limbs, but rather, because doing so will cost the taxpayer money. Nonetheless, I am certain that this point of view will eventually lead to accusations of being a bigot of some kind, but it is a valid bone of contention. Being “transabled” immediately comes off as some fetish sub-culture, but, I am quite certain that it will get very personal with those who are injured financially as result.

For the moment, we continue to meet the demands of healthcare and services of those in the armed forces who are serving and return from combat wounded. We justify rising healthcare costs and premiums of insurance that was supposed to be “affordable”, and grapple with the growing opinion that healthcare is a right and not a service. Now we must consider whether we should just pay for it all. Can we afford to? If we must not call this a mental disorder, then it is sufficed to say that the result of dismembering body parts to achieve the desired result isn’t a disability either.