Editing Mutilation (section)

{{Short description|Act of physical injury that degrades the appearance or function of any living body}}
[[File:CatherineEddowesJacktheRipperCanomicleVictimFourMitreSq.30091888a.jpg|thumb|[[Forensic pathology|Police surgeon]]'s drawing showing the mutilated body of [[Catherine Eddowes]], [[Jack the Ripper]]'s fourth canonical victim, as discovered on September 30, 1888]]
{{wiktionary|mutilation|maim}}

'''Mutilation''' or '''maiming''' (from the {{langx|la|mutilus}}) is [[Bodily harm|severe damage to the body]] that has a subsequent harmful effect on an individual's [[quality of life]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Pitts |first=Victoria |title=In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2003 |isbn=9781403979438 |pages=25}}</ref> In the [[modern era]], the terminology has an overwhelmingly negative [[connotation]],<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Inckle |first=Kay |title=Writing on the Body? Thinking Through Gendered Embodiment and Marked Flesh |publisher=[[Cambridge Scholars Publishing]] |year=2007 |isbn=9781443808729 |pages=Preface: X, 20}}</ref> referring to alterations that render something inferior, dysfunctional, imperfect, or ugly.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |date=October 7, 2022 |title=Definition of Mutilate |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mutilate |access-date=October 27, 2022 |website=[[Merriam-Webster]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |date=November 14, 2022 |title=Mutilation: Definition |url=https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/mutilate |access-date=November 14, 2022 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en-US}}</ref>