Kyle,
    I agree that surgeons who perform voluntary amputations are making a
mockery of the Hippocratic oath. It seems to me that they are also exposing
themselves to a tremendous risk of malpractice lawsuits should any of their
patients subsequently decide that life as an amputee is not as fulfilling as
the patient had expected.
      According to the web site linked to the article,  most of the
"wannabes" are men, the most commonly desired amputation is the amputation
of one leg above the knee and many patients report having seen or met an
amputee prior to age five.  Given these facts, I can't help wondering if the
number of "wannabes" fluctuates, increasing during and shortly after a war
and decreasing during peacetime.
Susan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cleveland, Kyle E." <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 12:57 PM
Subject: Re: Strange Mental Disorder


> Methinks the surgeon should not have stopped at the leg....
>
> Ok, these folks are very ill.  The fact that the surgeons are "enabling"
> them makes a mockery of the Hippocratic oath.  My wife has a couple of
kids
> in her class who are self-mutilators.  What the surgeons are doing would
be
> the same as if she were handing out razor blades to these children.
>
> I think we can lay the blame squarely on post-modern western
culture--where
> nothing is intrinsically "wrong".  If it's not wrong, then it doesn't need
> to be corrected through psych therapy.  The author is spot-on in the
> paragraph  that opens with "When I first wrote about this condition in the
> Atlantic...".  It has become "cool"--and profitable for the medical
> establishment--to have a "condition du Juor".
>
> Ya know, I don't thing we HAVE heard everything...yet.  I believe the
worst
> is yet to come.
>
> Kyle
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kat [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 8:41 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Strange Mental Disorder
>
>
> OK, I've now heard of everything:
>
> Amputee Wannabes:
> http://www.msnbc.com/news/937135.asp?0cv=CB20
>
> It really boggles my mind that people actually *want* to be disabled and
> they have such a twisted view of themselves.
>
> I'm trying to be nonjudgemental, honestly I am...but in this case, oy vey.
>
> Kat