This is the genesis of the "first, do no harm" principle that at one time was held inviolable by ethical medical practitioners. Note that wording: "Ethical medical practitioners." I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on television, but it seems to me that cutting up or removing healthy tissue or body parts, with no physical reason to do so, is deeply and fundamentally unethical.

Practitioners advocating for "transgender" surgeries, of course, are pushing for precisely this: cutting or removing healthy tissue. Now, we see, it's not stopping there. A Quebec man, claiming to have "body integrity dysphoria" (BID), has convinced an (unethical) surgeon to remove two of his fingers. 

Ever since he was a child he’d had “incessant,” intrusive thoughts about his left hand’s fourth and fifth fingers, the sensation that they weren’t his, that they didn’t belong to his body. At night, he’d wake from nightmares that his fingers were burning or rotting.

The young Quebec man was so desperate to get rid of his fingers he contemplated building a small, makeshift guillotine. “He couldn’t imagine himself living for the years to come with those fingers,” according to a recently published case report.

Instead, a surgeon at his local hospital agreed to an elective amputation in what is being called the first described case of “digits amputation” for body integrity dysphoria, or BID, a rare and complex condition characterized by an intense desire to amputate a perfectly healthy body part, such as an arm or a leg.

The Cleveland Clinic is generally regarded as one of the best hospitals in the United States. In my previous career, I did some business with the Cleveland Clinic, and my personal observation is that they are state-of-the-art, with some of the best practitioners and the best practices in the nation. Here's what the Cleveland Clinic has to say about treatments for what they refer to as "Body integrity identity disorder, or body integrity dysphoria":

Treatment is challenging for body integrity identity disorder. There isn’t a single treatment available for BIID alone. Healthcare providers will offer several forms of treatment to avoid amputation of a healthy limb and prevent you from performing harmful behaviors. Treatment may include:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy.
• Medications to treat depression and anxiety.
• Wearing a prosthetic, using a wheelchair or crutches.
• Using virtual reality to simulate living without a part of your body.

Often, medications and therapy can reduce some symptoms of BIID. Treatment won’t get rid of your desire to live without a limb or body part. But it can reduce the amount of stress you feel so you can manage it long term.

They do mention surgery:

Does amputation cure BIID?

This is a difficult question to answer. It may seem like an amputation will fulfill your desires and cure BIID. You may not regret your decision to remove a healthy limb, but it will make your life more difficult and stressful than how you feel today. There’s no guarantee that removing a healthy part of your body will allow you to feel a sense of completion. This is why performing an amputation for BIID is controversial in healthcare.

Ethically, surgeons and providers won’t perform an amputation on a healthy limb without a clear medical need. This goes against the “do no harm” principle of healthcare. The consequences and risks associated with an amputation could be lifelong, dangerous and deadly.

That doesn't seem like a ringing endorsement of surgery as a treatment for BID/BIID.

See Related: New York's 'Equal Protection Amendment' Ballot Initiative Is Another Attack on Parental Rights 

Transgender Veterans Sue Veterans Affairs Over Failure to Cover 'Gender-Affirming' Surgery

This ties in, certainly, with all of the "transgender" individuals undergoing surgeries in which doctors — who are supposedly bound by the codes of medical ethics — slice off the breasts of healthy girls and women or conduct other such "gender-affirming" surgeries. Now, this sad violation of medical ethics has gone to the next level. This is clearly a condition that should be treated with psychotherapy, not surgery. This time, it's a couple of fingers, but what happens when someone comes in and wants an arm or leg removed? What happens when it's a minor who comes in and wants a limb removed? Where do these medical practitioners draw the line? 

Why are doctors altering or removing healthy body parts?

I can't speculate. I'm not a doctor. What's more, I can't advocate a policy solution for this particular case. This event happened in Canada, not the United States. Finally, I'm a pretty staunch civil libertarian, and for the most part, I adhere to the view that people's personal decisions are none of my business as long as they leave me alone. I may think this Quebec man is a nut, and the fact that he is distracted enough by his fingers to want two of them removed would certainly support that assertion. 

It's the doctors who I question in this case. This surgery, like the various "gender-affirming surgeries" that are being performed even on minors, represents a serious lapse in medical ethics — and this is a trend that sure seems to be more and more widely accepted in the medical community. Why is this concerning? Because I'm a man who's approaching senior citizen status, and as I get older, I find it necessary to seek medical attention more often than when I was a young man. Furthermore, my wife has a cardiac condition that requires a complex medical regimen and regular examinations. I want the American medical community to be ethical and driven by the Hippocratic Oath. Fortunately, my doctor is a family practitioner in a small, conservative Alaska community, and she doesn't adhere to this nonsense.

I'm afraid that, for too many practitioners, this isn't the case. This Quebec case is another data point supporting that view.