The rest of the article can be found here.Costing an Arm and a Leg
The victims of a growing mental disorder are obsessed with amputation.
By Carl Elliott
Posted Thursday, July 10, 2003, at 10:15 AM PT
Baz remembers first seeing an amputee when he was a 4-year old boy in Liverpool. By the time he was 7 he had begun to think, "This is the way I should be." It was not until Baz was in his 50s, however, that he actually had his leg amputated. Baz froze his leg in dry ice until it was irreversibly damaged, then persuaded a surgeon to complete the job. When he awoke from the anesthetic and his left leg was gone, he says, "All my torment had disappeared."
Whole, a riveting new documentary by Melody Gilbert that recently premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and will soon be shown at festivals in Calgary and London, is about an increasingly visible group of people who call themselves "amputee wannabes." Wannabes desperately wish to have their healthy limbs removed, and some have succeeded in having it done. Kevin, a university lecturer and one of several wannabes featured in the film, had his leg amputated by Robert Smith, a surgeon in Scotland who has amputated the legs of two otherwise healthy people. George Boyer shot his own leg off with a shotgun. Others have used chain saws and homemade guillotines. Why? Nobody really knows, including the wannabes themselves, who often say they have had the desire since they were children. "It's obviously peculiar," admits Kevin. "But knowing it is peculiar and saying it is weird does not do away with the problem."
Interesting article, I had no idea that there were people like that out there. Is it just me or are people getting more and more insane lately? It's like the classic crazy just isn't crazy enough, and people need to find new ways to push the envelope. I have trouble feeling sympathy for someone who would do something like that to themself. Does that make me insensitive?
The question I have for you all though is whether that should be legal or illegal? I mean, it's your body and they let people get crazy piercings and tongue splitting and whatnot...