“Josh” says he was fully prepared when he amputated his left
hand with a power tool. He says he had tried to cut it off
before—once putting it underneath a truck and trying to crush it
(the jack didn’t collapse right); once attempting to saw it off
with a table saw (he lost his nerve). He even spent countless
miles driving around with his hand dangling out the window,
hoping to get side-swiped. But this time he was determined to
succeed. Josh, who insisted on anonymity because his family
thinks he lost his hand in an accident, says he practiced on
animal legs he got from a butcher, and he was equipped with
bandages to stop the bleeding and a charged cell phone in case
he got dizzy. Now, years later, Josh says he feels wonderful
without his hand, that his amputation finally ended a “torment”
that had plagued him since middle school. “It is a tremendous
relief,” he told Newsweek. “I feel like my body is right.”
Surprising as it may seem, Josh is not alone. He has what some
scientists are calling Body Integrity