[insickness]

There's a good book on this called Better Than Well that discusses the use of medicine for life improvement rather than treating disease. One of the most interesting chapters was on amputees by choice, people who want to cut off a limb to become handicapped. Doctors were left with the painful decision of helping these people achieve this or having them do it on their own in a much more dangerous way. While most would agree the behavior of amputees by choice is in some way pathological, it presents an interesting question about whether people have the right to do to their own bodies what they want and the role of medicine in helping them achieve those aims.

[diegoperini]

Is there a testimony of someone who went through such surgery? What's the mindset of a person who really needs his/her limbs removed because of such urges?

[hnick]

One possible cause is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_integrity_dysphoria but there are related conditions with other names.

I saw an interview years ago on TV and someone was saying it felt like that appendage was not part of their body, it belonged to someone else. It was so mentally uncomfortable they'd rather remove it.

[burnthrow]

I would never do it, but there's some convincing evidence (the experience of eunuchs) that castration evens out the male/female longevity difference.