ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses several arguments against non-therapeutic mutilation. The history of mankind is full of examples of bodily mutilation inflicted for ritual, or other cultural, reasons. Some body mutilations or modifications, e.g. sterilisation or sex change, have become available through medical technology and are widely established and often acclaimed. The chapter aims to inspect philosophical arguments which may be relevant for the evaluation of voluntary mutilation. Three important considerations are: duties to oneself, the value of autonomy vs. possible offence to others, and the concept of well-being and harm. Immanuel Kant is lead by the belief that our specific human abilities generate autonomy of the will and hence the ability to give oneself a law upon which to act. The duty of self-perfection has its foundation in this very characteristic. But the modification of our given body, the transgression of its natural limits, might be interpreted as the best accomplishment of human freedom.
