Ever since she was a little girl, Jewel Shuping wanted to be blind.

 Ever since she was a little girl, Jewel Shuping wanted to be blind.

As a child, she would spend hours staring at the sun, watching sunspots and solar storms after her mother told her it would damage her eyes.

At just six years old she said thinking about being blind made her comfortable. 

In 2006, aged 21, Jewel found a psychologist who agreed to blind her, the psychologist poured drain cleaner directly into her eyes. 

Her family disowned her after learning that her loss of vision wasn’t an accident. 

In 2015, Jewel said she had no regrets about her decision. 

Jewel has Body Integrity Identity Disorder. A condition in which able-bodied people believe they are meant to be disabled.

As the years passed, Jewel had to relearn the world from a completely different perspective. Simple tasks—walking down a street, pouring a drink, recognizing faces—became daily challenges that required patience and adaptation. She learned to use a white cane, relied on screen readers and audio cues, and slowly built a routine that allowed her to live independently. To outsiders, her life looked unnecessarily difficult, but to Jewel, it finally felt aligned with who she believed she truly was.

Her case sparked intense debate within medical and psychological communities. Many professionals condemned the psychologist’s actions as unethical and criminal, arguing that intentionally disabling a healthy person violates the core principles of medicine. Others used Jewel’s story to highlight the lack of understanding and treatment options for Body Integrity Identity Disorder, noting that sufferers often feel ignored, dismissed, or driven to extreme measures when help is unavailable.

Public reaction was equally divided. Some people expressed anger and disbelief, struggling to comprehend why anyone would choose permanent blindness. Others responded with empathy, comparing BIID to other identity-related conditions where the distress comes not from the body itself, but from the mismatch between the body and the mind. Jewel became both a symbol of controversy and a voice for a condition most people had never heard of.

Despite losing her family’s support, Jewel continued to speak openly about her experience in interviews and documentaries. She explained that her desire to be blind was not impulsive or attention-seeking, but something deeply rooted that had followed her since early childhood. For her, the emotional relief after losing her sight outweighed the physical loss, a statement that continued to unsettle many who heard it.

Today, Jewel’s story remains one of the most extreme and unsettling examples of Body Integrity Identity Disorder. It raises uncomfortable questions about autonomy, mental health, and the limits of medical intervention. Whether viewed as a tragedy, a mental health failure, or an act of self-determination, her life forces society to confront how little is understood about the human mind—and how far some people are willing to go to feel whole.