List of autocannibalism incidents

Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Self-cannibalism is the practice of eating oneself, also called autocannibalism, or autosarcophagy. In recorded medical literature there were several incidents of autocannibalism.

Incidents

  • Erzsébet Báthory allegedly forced some of her servants to eat their own flesh in the early 17th century.[1]
  • At the age of six, American child molester and suspected serial killer Nathaniel Bar-Jonah would pick at his scabs until his skin was festering, then proceed to suck on the blood from the wound.[2]
  • In the 1990s, a number of Ugandan young people in Uganda were forced to eat their own ears after their return to Sudan .[3]
  • Incidents of autocannibalism were reported in the years following the 1991 Haitian coup d'état.[4]
  • In 2009 in New Zealand, a 28-year-old man nicknamed as "Mr X" amputated his little finger with a jigsaw, cooked it in a pan around another vegetables and ate it. Apparently, the act was not brought by drugs consumption or drinking problems. The man had a personal crisis in 2008 and, while suffering from insomnia and suicidal ideation, he fantasized about cutting his fingers. After the act, he felt relief and initially was excited, but not sexually.[5] Later, the patient regretted for the act.[6] The incident was described as the first incident of auto-cannibalism in New Zealand.[6]
  • In 2014, a 34-year-old prisoner cut his thigh with a knife and had eaten the flesh about one hour after cutting the tissue.[7]
  • A 66-year-old man was mutilating his fingers by biting them for six years, resulting in loss of the terminal phalanges of all fingers on both hands.[8]
  • Andre Thomas, a convicted murderer and death row inmate from Grayson County, Texas, US removed his left eye on 9 December 2008. He had already removed his right eye in 2004 after murdering his estranged wife and two children. After he removed his second eye, he ate it.
  • David Playpenz, of Colchester, England, lost one of his fingers in a motorcycle accident. After asking for his amputated finger, he took it home and boiled it and ate the finger. Before that, he took a photo of the finger and posted on Facebook.[9]
  • 21-year-old Brendan Higginbotham of County Kildare, Ireland was tortured by criminals in 2011. He had a rope tied around his neck, and bound his arms and was beaten with a sledgehammer and iron bar. The criminals sliced a portion of Higginbotham's ears and forced him to eat it. He lost half of his right ear and had to undergo plastic surgery.[10][11]
  • In 2012, 29-year-old Jargget Washington was high on PCP and stripping naked in Jersey City, US and tried to pull a driver out of the car. Soon after, he ate his medical bracelet and attempted to free himself from handcuffs by chewing on his wrists. While being transported to jail, he defecated in the police vehicle. After he was placed in jail, he gnawed off one of his fingers and swallowed it.[12]
  • In May 2018 the reddit user IncrediblyShinyShart[13] consumed his amputated foot with 10 of his friends. After an accident 2 years earlier his foot would not heal and the doctors suggested that he would be better if he amputated it, and he subsequently asked his friends:"Remember how we always talked about how, if we ever had the chance to ethically eat human meat, would you do it?"[14]

See also

References

  1. Adams, Cecil "Did Dracula really exist?" The Straight Dope
  2. Espy, John C.: Eat the Evidence: A Journey Through the Dark Boroughs of a Paedophilic Cannibal's Mind. Karnac Books, 2014 ISBN 978-1782200338
  3. Lambeth Daily News 6 August 1998
  4. Chin, Pat. "Behind the Rockwood case" Workers World, April 6, 1996
  5. Monasterio, Erik; Prince, Craig (2011). "Self-Cannibalism in the Absence of Psychosis and Substance Use". Australasian Psychiatry. 19 (2): 170–172. doi:10.3109/10398562.2010.526219. PMID 21443396. S2CID 34814664.
  6. Johnston, Martin Johnston, Martin (2011-04-15). "Depressed man cooks and eats his finger". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2020-10-03.
  7. Yilmaz, Atakan; Uyanik, Emrah; Balci Şengül, Melike C.; Yaylaci, Serpil; Karcioglu, Ozgur; Serinken, Mustafa (September 2014). "Self-Cannibalism: The Man Who Eats Himself". Western Journal of Emergency Medicine. 15 (6): 701–702. doi:10.5811/westjem.2014.6.22705. ISSN 1936-900X. PMC 4162732. PMID 25247046.
  8. Michopoulos, Ioannis; Gournellis, Rossetos; Papadopoulou, Marianna; Plachouras, Diamandis; Vlahakos, Dimitris V.; Tournikioti, Kalliopi; Tsigkaropoulou, Eudoksia; Lykouras, Lefteris (February 2012). "A case of autophagia: a man who was mutilating his fingers by biting them". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 200 (2): 183–185. doi:10.1097/NMD.0b013e318243989b. ISSN 1539-736X. PMID 22297319.
  9. Conheça 10 histórias perturbadoras de canibalismo humano, R7 (January 31, 2016)
  10. Man forced to eat his own ear 'just glad to be alive', Irish Independent (February 19, 2011)
  11. 'I'm glad to be alive' - ear torture victim, Irish Independent (February 19, 2011)
  12. Man believed to be on PCP gnaws finger after naked carjack try, authorities say, nj.com (October 22, 2012)
  13. "r/IAmA - Hi all, I am a man who ate a portion of his own amputated leg. Ask me anything". reddit. Retrieved 2018-11-24.
  14. "This Guy Served His Friends Tacos Made from His Own Amputated Leg". Vice. 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-11-24.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.