Hey, kudos to being open to arguments and changing your opinion. I wish more people were like that.

I feel the need to preface this with "I am not trolling here" But the procedure in most states, as I understand it is for a person who wants to transition take the following steps: 1. Start living as the opposite sex (typically by using a pseudonym followed by dressing and exhibiting stereotypical gender roles) 2. start taking hormones to alter their biological chemistry to better fit their preferred sex. 3. undergo surgical alteration to become as close as possible to the preferred sex albeit with non-functional organs (that is, they are incapable of being used for procreation) Likewise, a physical alteration of a person with non-functioning legs could follow this pattern: 1. start living with full time wheel chair use 2. take medication that numbs or otherwise disables the legs 3. surgically remove the legs. The end result of both is to take something that is perfectly functional and turn it into something that is more appealing to the person, but non-functional. The difference is one of degrees as far as I see it. Now, I'm enough of a libertarian, that I say people should have freedom to do what they want but I think it is clear that this is not a problem with the physiology, but rather the psychology, which makes it a de facto mental illness.

Okay, let's try something else. A person is in a possession of a fully functioning body, but they *feel* that they should not have working legs. From the perspective of society is the correct treatment to chop off their legs, or to give them counselling or medical help to accept their body?