Amputation Due to Body Integrity Dysphoria and Criminal Law

One of the issues related to the legality of medical procedures is the response to the question of the legality of deep interventions in the human body resulting from a patient’s medical conditions. This includes the issue of amputating a healthy limb, which can lead to an improvement in the mental quality of life for a patient suffering from body integrity dysphoria. From a medical standpoint, non-invasive treatment methods do not lead to significant improvements in the patient’s mental condition; in contrast, amputation serves as an effective therapeutic method. However, from the perspective of criminal law, such an amputation constitutes a severe impairment of human health. Nevertheless, since it has a medical justification, it is legally permissible under criminal law. A physician’s actions for therapeutic purposes, conducted in accordance with the principles of medical practice, do not violate the rules governing the treatment of legal goods in the form of health. However, it is not possible to justify amputation solely based on the patient’s consent to such a procedure (consent of the possessor of the legal good); an individual does not have the right to freely dispose of all their legal goods, and they cannot give legally valid consent to a severe impairment of their health.