5 Shocking Sexual Fetishes, According To A Behavioral Addiction Doctor - Page 4

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4. Apotemnophilia

Apotemnophilia is a fetish that can result in serious legal consequences. While many apotemnophiles find sexual arousal in amputations or in being with someone who has lost a limb, some take their desires even further. A few individuals have sought out surgeons to amputate their healthy limbs in order to satisfy their fetish.

Philip Bondy’s fatal obsession with apotemnophilia ultimately led to his death. The 79-year-old New Yorker passed away in 1999 from gangrene after having his healthy right leg amputated below the knee in an illicit procedure, according to the Guardian. 

Bondy paid close to $7,922 to a former doctor, John Brown, to carry out the amputation. For those with apotemnophilia, the act of losing a limb is sexually stimulating. However, the operation went wrong, and just two days later, Bondy died in a San Diego hotel room. Brown, 77, was convicted of second-degree murder in connection with Bondy’s death and now faces a life sentence.

Griffiths said while this fetish may seem like “a type of masochism,” studies show “that there is no eroticization of pain — only of the healed amputated stump.”