Children, Culture, and Body Modification.

In this paper, I analyze the phenomenon of child cultural body modification (CCBM). I describe the practice, discuss philosophical, sociological, and anthropological arguments about the parental motivations, and evaluate an influential justification based on the children's putative cultural benefit of undergoing CCBM. I propose an alternative view of bodily integrity based on the value of body agency, the ability of individuals to generate meaning in their world through conscious, voluntary, and purpose-driven usage of their own bodies.

Sliding Doors: should treatment of gender identity disorder and other body modifications be privately funded?

Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is regarded as a mental illness and included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). It will also appear in the DSM-V, due to be published in 2013. The classification of GID as a mental illness is contentious. But what would happen to sufferers if it were removed from the diagnostic manuals? Would people lose their entitlement to funded medical care, or to reimbursement under insurance schemes? On what basis should medical treatment for GID be provided? What are the moral arguments for and against funded or reimbursed medical care for GID? This paper starts out with a fiction: GID is removed from the diagnostic manuals. Then the paper splits in two, as in happened in the Howitt's 1998 film Sliding Doors. The two scenarios run parallel. In one, it is argued that GID is on a par with other body modifications, such as cosmetic and racial surgery, and that, for ethical reasons, treatment for GID should be privately negotiated by applicants and professionals and privately paid for. In the other scenario, it is argued that the comparison between GID and other body modifications is misleading. Whether or not medical treatment should be funded or reimbursed is independent of whether GID is on a par with other forms of body dissatisfaction.

All hail the new flesh: some thoughts on scarification, children and adults.

Body art as expressed through non-therapeutic bodily modification is extremely popular, with techniques ranging from the commonplace such as ear piercing to the more esoteric forms such as tongue splitting. Scarification is one such body art practice that is becoming popular as an alternative to tattooing and ear piercing. This paper begins by outlining the regulatory problems that scarification poses. It then goes on to argue that although there is a reasonable case for permitting competent adults to make use of scarification, the practice should not be made available to minors.