Morbid curiosity? Discussion of the disposal of amputated limbs on online question and answer sites

Abstract

Amputation is a growing health issue with implications for the corporeal form and sense of bodily identity. Disposal of the removed limb (the amputate) has historically been suggested to impact on patient adaptation to amputation, although understandings of limb disposal are scarce within existing research. The growth of online question and answer sites has created opportunities for social actors to post and respond to a vast array of topic areas, including those that are seen as morbid or taboo. This paper then explores the discussion of amputate disposal within threads from two popular question and answer sites. Using thematic analysis, the paper examines how perceived ownership of limbs, understanding of the amputate as ‘waste’ and recourse to grotesque humour are key means by which limb disposal is discussed within these sites. Posters then create a new knowledge around the disposal of limbs, albeit one framed by uncertainty.

Clinical Issues — May 2024

“…The return of the amputated limb may be important to the patient for cultural, social, religious, or spiritual reasons 1 . Patients undergoing limb amputation can experience grief equivalent to the loss of a spouse as well as changes in their quality of life, mental health, 4 body image, and sense of self 4,5 . Some cultures and religions, including Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam, have specific requirements for the burial of bodies and body parts 6,7 .…”

Disposalscapes: ‘Estranged’ Limbs after Amputation

“…Thus, for some patients, the ownership question remains the central factor for why they seek to influence the disposal of their limb, and indeed our previous research into lay perspectives around limb disposal primarily identified that people believe amputated limbs should 'belong' to those from who they originated (Hanna, 2019b). However, the proprietorial aspect only goes so far within the justification of why patients want their limb returned to them, or for them to influence its disposal.…”

“…They also offer less possibility for the memorialisation of the lost limb – shared sites, being as they are a collective entity, and in the case of the site at Sheffield the internment of the limbs into the grave is mediated via clinical and state services, namely the mortuary and council staff within the city. Other options for how ‘estranged limbs’ are disposed of after amputation do exist, although often narrated through more abject or grotesque discourses (Hanna, 2019b). This currently serves to further position ‘disposal’ as unusual, enforcing normative positions, whereby ‘our bodies in parts’ (Sobchack, 2010: 55) are seen as particularly challenging of our ideals of bodily integrity and disposal practices relating more readily to contexts of corporeal wholeness.…”

“…The choice by him to enact any sort of autonomy over the disposal of his amputated parts was however not subject to any discussion or scrutiny within the coverage, and as with Loyall’s foot, the dark humour of the amputee is seen as central in the telling of this story. As has been detailed elsewhere, lay discourses around the notion of disposal also involve such dark humour and considerations of the grotesque (Hanna, 2019b). Analysis of online postings on the topic of limb disposal demonstrates how such mechanisms – like the recourse to humour – are deployed as a means of framing what can be seen as morbid curiosity for this topic (Hanna, 2019b).…”

“…As has been detailed elsewhere, lay discourses around the notion of disposal also involve such dark humour and considerations of the grotesque (Hanna, 2019b). Analysis of online postings on the topic of limb disposal demonstrates how such mechanisms – like the recourse to humour – are deployed as a means of framing what can be seen as morbid curiosity for this topic (Hanna, 2019b). Thus, while the choice for the toes of Griffiths to be transformed into ‘garnish’ was of course a different choice to that of Loyall, whose foot become a prop for her Instagram photos, media reporting of these former intact limbs as objects, things their owners have , with new utilities was accepted.…”