Saudi 24-year-old about to be legally paralyzed

[patsymae]

I'm not sure of the protocol or how to break links, wish I was. But a 24-year-old Saudi man is about to be surgically paralyzed as punishment for a crime he committed when he was 14 years old. He stabbed his friend in the back and the friend became paralyzed. The young man who did that has been in jail since he was 14 and is now set to be paralyzed surgically himself. His family can't afford the payment to the victim family that would change the sentence. In Saudi Arabia apparently there are still doctors (or, also, if you continue the links that I'm not sure how to provide here, but just google the general idea( specialists in this and other physical punishments.

It is, of course, okay, because the religion calls for it.

[Stickers]

Anyone been able to find out why he stabbed his friend in the back? That's such a weird thing, was it a game gone bad or out of anger?

[Destiny]

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/04/saudi-arabian-paralysis-sentence-grotesque

I'm horrified!

[So Says I]

Just chilling. The picture on that page is rather disturbing as well. I do not agree with torture or the death penalty, regardless of the crime. It's extra creepy that the guy is to be paralyzed because he can't buy his way out of it.

[YPestis]

I want to point out that there was a similar case a few years back where a Saudi criminal was given a similar sentence. He had stabbed another person, paralyzing the man and the judge decided to set "an eye for an eye" punishment and condemn the man to be paralyzed, but (he thought) more humanely by allowing a doctor to do it. However, the judge could not find a single hospital or surgeon willing to do this! There is hope that the same will happen here. The other case also saw publicity, but that was AFTER several hospitals have turned down the judge's proposal. Even in a radical theocracy like Saudi Arabia, it seems not everyone agrees with such medieval sentences. I hope the same happens here.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I can't deny I'm creeped out and yet fascinated by the article. I had long wondered, in those "tit for tat" system, if the punishment is lop off a hand, surely they do it in a hospital now? and yet that scenario is somehow MORE horrifying than just having the hand lopped off with a sharp sword in the same place they use for beheading. Somehow. I suppose in the latter case (as I had imagined it) they'd lop off the hand and then provide first aid, so you end up at the hospital with a tourniquet or what? I don't even know.

But there are people in the US who electively WANT someone to paralyze them, they would desperately ask for such surgery (are they sane? Hmm) and I have to wonder how they will read this article. No doctors ever agree to provide such services (for obvious reasons). So yeah maybe in this case too if they're asking a doctor to do it, no one agrees.

[So Says I]

I'm not familiar with the idea of Americans who want to be paralyzed by doctors. Do you mean people with Munchausen Syndrome?

[Vex]

People with Munchausen generally tend to use drugs or poisons to inflict symptoms upon themselves.

However, I know there are people with types of body dysmorphic disorder who want to have limbs removed that they feel they feel are ugly and shouldn't be there, people who want to be amputees because they find it erotic and even people who want to find others to infect them with AIDS so they feel like they can be part of the community (and for many other equally disturbing reasons). I think that's what they meant when they talked about people in the US looking for doctors willing to make them disabled in some way.

[bionicmlle]

Body Integrity Identity Disorder. It's fascinating and really brings some color to medical ethics discussions.

ETA: Folks with BIID identify AS an amputee, paraplegic, etc. It is seen somewhat like Gender Identity Disorder more than Body Dysmorphic Disorder. It's not that they believe that there is something WRONG with a body part (like in BDD) but that they ARE disabled (an amputee, a person who uses braces, etc).

[Vex]

Yes, it really is fascinating. We've mostly come to accept people can be born with a body that doesn't match the gender of the brain and medical ethics allow operations to help correct that problem, but there are people who feel they shouldn't have legs or that they should be blind or paraplegic. It's becoming hard to draw a line between what is 'acceptable' to electively change and what isn't.

I should have said there were people who looked to be infected with HIV in my previous post, since you catch HIV and develop AIDS.

[pudding]

Some years ago there was a man who burnt a womans face and blinded her with acid in Iran. She was allowed to burn his eyes and blind him too as revenge.

But she refused to enforce this judgement last minute. Her explanation sounded weird, so I have no idea if his family paid her off also... that's just one fucked up revenge system!

[crazyforkate]

This is just sick. Throw him in jail, make him pay a huge fine - but death or permanent injury? That is where I draw the line, in all cases, in all countries. How barbaric. How disgusting.

[JesusFightClub]

gardenvarietycitizen: It's a rare punishment, but when it is carried out it's carried out in a hospital, yes.

It seems fairly pointless as a punishment, to me.

[Ex 2x2]

I want to point out that there was a similar case a few years back where a Saudi criminal was given a similar sentence. He had stabbed another person, paralyzing the man and the judge decided to set "an eye for an eye" punishment and condemn the man to be paralyzed, but (he thought) more humanely by allowing a doctor to do it. However, the judge could not find a single hospital or surgeon willing to do this! There is hope that the same will happen here. The other case also saw publicity, but that was AFTER several hospitals have turned down the judge's proposal. Even in a radical theocracy like Saudi Arabia, it seems not everyone agrees with such medieval sentences. I hope the same happens here.

I hope this is the outcome here. How horrible!!