The subject raises issues as to the extent to which it is proper to treat adults with psychiatric or psychological disorders with radical surgery, particularly where the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of the underlying disorder is uncertain or disputed; the limitations which ought to be placed upon consent as a means of rendering surgery lawful and whether the criminal law ought to have a place in controlling operations provided by qualified surgeons upon competent adults with their consent.
On my way back from an appointment at the hospital where I was being treated for a rare giant cell tumour in my left foot, my phone rang. It was my publisher saying that she'd found an image of a rather lovely pair of feet to go on the cover of my first novel. They were nothing at all to do with the book but, she thought, they somehow caught the spirit of it.