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<p>This article argues that the connection between a person and their body provides the moral foundation for recognising a fundamental right to body integrity. I define body integrity as the ideal state of that connection and use it to ground a distinct normative basis for protecting claims concerning one’s own body. On this account, claims about one’s body are justified where (i) they genuinely pursue oneness between how one sees their body and how one experiences it, and (ii) their realisation respects bodily capacities and limits by avoiding unjustified or disproportionate damage to the body. Unlike the traditional right to bodily integrity, which primarily protects against non-consensual touch, the right to body integrity can support both entitlements to intervention and protection from intervention. Drawing on bodily awareness, personal identity, challenging requests for body-modifying interventions, and case law, the article shows how this framework clarifies adjudication and warrants fundamental-right status, restricted only in exceptional cases.</p>

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Connection Between Us and Our Bodies as Moral Justification for a Fundamental Right to Decide About One’s Own Body

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月1日

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  • Aleksandra Alekseenko

摘要

This article argues that the connection between a person and their body provides the moral foundation for recognising a fundamental right to body integrity. I define body integrity as the ideal state of that connection and use it to ground a distinct normative basis for protecting claims concerning one’s own body. On this account, claims about one’s body are justified where (i) they genuinely pursue oneness between how one sees their body and how one experiences it, and (ii) their realisation respects bodily capacities and limits by avoiding unjustified or disproportionate damage to the body. Unlike the traditional right to bodily integrity, which primarily protects against non-consensual touch, the right to body integrity can support both entitlements to intervention and protection from intervention. Drawing on bodily awareness, personal identity, challenging requests for body-modifying interventions, and case law, the article shows how this framework clarifies adjudication and warrants fundamental-right status, restricted only in exceptional cases.