Mentally Ill Man Cuts off Hand and Then Microwaves It

The book of Matthew in the Holy Bible is quoted as saying if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Too many people take the bible to literally and it causes problems such as what happened to a young man recently in Idaho.

A mentally ill man in Idaho who thought his hand had the mark of the beast upon it, cut it off with a circular saw, and popped it into the microwave to perform as exorcism to rid it off the beast on Saturday January 5, 2008. He is currently admitted to a local hospital in the mental health unit. The man is expected to make a full recovery but the doctors we unable to save the hand.

Last year a man in Virginia who was in a butcher market with his teenage son went behind the counter and grabbed an electric knife. It is reported that he used that knife to cut off his left hand to the wrist and claimed it was for Allah. He was taken to a local hospital for medical treatment as well as a mental health checkup.

In Nepal, a young man cut off his right hand and claimed he did it for the Goddess Kali. The Goddess Kali is the multi armed Hindu Goddess commonly associated with destruction, but it is unknown why this young man would sacrifice his own hand to her. He was treated at a local hospital for his injuries and given a mental health check up.

A 38-year-old Australian man cuts off a right finger in front of his partner who called an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, the woman ran outside followed by the man who then cut off other body parts as well as his left hand at the wrist in a bizarre act of self-mutilation in front of seven officers who had just arrived as well as the woman and ambulance people. He was under the influence of drugs and hand a fight with his wife. It is unclear from the report if the man also got a mental health evaluation, which he needed. Please read this link to get the full story of how badly drugs influenced this poor man.

How big a part does religion play is self-amputation or mutilation? Is it all just mental illness or is it how people read their religious books? That is a debate for others, but it certainly makes you wonder, why that Matthew quote is often used in self-amputation stories when it really is just mental illness.