I consider body mods done for any reason to be body mods. Open heart surgery is a body mod.
The distinction being made is the quesiton of a compelling and necessary reason as opposed to being "elective".
Honestly, I don't think anyone who wishes sexual reassignment surgery is doing so on an "elective" basis. It just isn't something one contemplates lightly or puts one's self through if it isn't absolutely necessary. But you may have a different opinion on that.
Ultimately, I don't like the notion that "MEDICALLY necessary" is the only meaningful criteria. Either we end up doing yet more intellectually dishonest things like pretenting human anguish is a biomedical condition or we acknowledge that there are other compelling reasons to make changes to the body. Young children born with cleft lip and cleft palate need the surgeries in order to live a semblance of normal social life. A prosthetic chunk of plastic that would make it easier for them to swallow might make it "medically" unnecessary but by any human gauge of necessity it's inappropriate and wrong to deny people surgical inventions for cleft lip & palate that would facilitate them interacting and having a meaningful social life.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2016-05-01 03:16 pm (UTC)The distinction being made is the quesiton of a compelling and necessary reason as opposed to being "elective".
Honestly, I don't think anyone who wishes sexual reassignment surgery is doing so on an "elective" basis. It just isn't something one contemplates lightly or puts one's self through if it isn't absolutely necessary. But you may have a different opinion on that.
Ultimately, I don't like the notion that "MEDICALLY necessary" is the only meaningful criteria. Either we end up doing yet more intellectually dishonest things like pretenting human anguish is a biomedical condition or we acknowledge that there are other compelling reasons to make changes to the body. Young children born with cleft lip and cleft palate need the surgeries in order to live a semblance of normal social life. A prosthetic chunk of plastic that would make it easier for them to swallow might make it "medically" unnecessary but by any human gauge of necessity it's inappropriate and wrong to deny people surgical inventions for cleft lip & palate that would facilitate them interacting and having a meaningful social life.