First, do no harm? Agency, autonomy and wound/body ownership in grassroots self-injury support in the UK

Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork with a grassroots self-injury support organisation in the North of England, this paper examines how ethical priorities shape decisions about wound care among people who practice self-injury. Drawing on in-depth engagement with three participants-Julie, Eliza and Nuala-this paper explores how values of agency, autonomy, and wound/body ownership are prioritised over biomedical imperatives to heal wounds efficiently and to restore bodily health. While clinical frameworks often understand these practices as 'non-compliance,' this paper shows how autonomous wound-management practices function as ethical strategies through which individuals assert control, maintain psychosocial balance and navigate their moral responsibilities towards themselves and others.