Disembowelment

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Disembowelment, disemboweling, evisceration, eviscerating or gutting is the removal of

The removal of internal organs is a typical operation in meat processing also known as dressing.^[2] Land animals and birds are typically killed and bled before the dressing. The process of dressing includes the removal of heart, liver and lungs (pluck) as well as disembowelment by an abdominal cut.^[3] Disembowelment is typically accompanied by bung dropping or bunging.^[4] Bung dropping is the circumcision of the rectum from the carcass and is the first step of the gutting.^[4] Puncturing of bowels are avoided during the evisceration. Otherwise, bacteria from the intestinal contents might spread over the carcass.^[5] In case of birds, the abdominal cut extends up to the cloaca separating it from the rest of the skin.^[6]

Industrial dressing line

A bung dropper is a device used in

James Cook, on his second voyage, noted an embalming custom on some of the Pacific islands his crew visited, a custom utilizing transanal evisceration:[11]

We found the body not only entire in every part; but, what surprised us much more, was, that putrefaction had scarcely begun (...); though the climate is one of the hottest, and Tee had been dead above five months.(...) Such were Mr. Anderson's remarks to me, who also told me, on his enquiring into the method of effecting this preservation of their dead bodies, he had been informed, that, soon after their death, they are disemboweled, by drawing their intestines, and other viscera, out at the anus; and the whole cavity is then filled or stuffed with cloth; introduced through the same part(...)

Transanal evisceration of humans

When a portion of the intestinal tract is forcefully pulled from or expelled from the body through the anus, it is referred to as transanal evisceration. Following the first report of transanal evisceration by Brodie in 1827, more than 70 cases have been reported to date, the majority occurring spontaneously in elderly individuals. Straining, chronic constipation, and rectal ulcerations predispose to spontaneous perforation in elderly individuals.^[12]

Cases of transanal evisceration of children whilst sitting over uncovered

A person, usually a child, can suffer a similar injury if a heavy weight is applied directly over the abdomen. Large intestine (rectosigmoid) rupture with transanal evisceration has been reported from blunt abdominal trauma and suction injuries. A direct blow or impingement of intestine between the vertebrae and anterior abdominal wall results in sudden increase in the intra-abdominal or intraluminal pressure of the intestine and rupture.[12] The downward pressure forces a portion of the intestine to burst from the anus.

Disembowelment of humans as torture

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If a living person is disemboweled, it is invariably fatal without major medical intervention. Historically, disembowelment has been used as a severe form of capital punishment. If the intestinal tract alone is removed, death follows after several hours of gruesome pain. The victim will often be fully conscious while the torture is performed if the vital organs aren't damaged, and will be able to see their intestine being removed, but will eventually lose consciousness due to blood loss. However, in some forms of intentional disembowelment, decapitation or the removal of the heart and lungs would hasten the victim's death.^{[citation needed]}

Asia

Vietnam

Various accounts have asserted that during the

Two Israeli people were disemboweled during the 2000 Ramallah lynching.

Europe

Romania

In early 1941, during the

In

William Harrington, Hugh le Despenser the Younger and William Parry are examples of men who were hanged, drawn and quartered – tortured on the rack, hanged until not quite dead, subjected to emasculation, disembowelment and then chopped into quarters.^[22]

Germany

From the 15th century, ordinances are retained that threaten with a terrible punishment those who stripped off the bark of a standing tree in the common woods. A typical wording is found in the 1401 ordinance from Oberursel:^[23]

"...and whoever is caught stripping off a standing tree, mercy would have been more beneficial to him than the law is; for when law is to be fulfilled, then one is to cut up his stomach at the navel, and pull out a length of the gut. The gut is to be nailed to the tree, and one is keep going around that tree with the person, so long as he still has any part of the gut left in his body."

Suicide

In

The act of decapitation by a second (kaishaku-nin) was added to this ritual suicide in later times in order to shorten the suffering of the samurai or leader, an attempt at rendering the ritual more humane. Even later the knife was just a simple formality and the swordsman would decapitate before the subject could reach for it. The commission of a crime or dishonorable act was only one of many reasons for the performance of seppuku; others included the atonement of cowardice, as a means of apology, or following the loss of a battle or the surrender of a castle.^{[citation needed]}

The Japanese tradition of seppuku is a well known example of highly ritualized suicide, within a wider cultural world of norms and symbolism. However, reported examples of suicides exist, in which a person performed disembowelment on himself or herself, without any ambient culture of approved, or expected, suicide.^{[citation needed]}

The Spartan king

Roman statesman Cato the Younger committed suicide in Utica, after his side lost to Caesar, by plunging a knife in his own gut, in the dead of night. According to Plutarch, Cato's son heard the commotion from a nearby room, and called a doctor who stitched the wound close; after his son and the doctor left, Cato tore the stitching open with his hand and died. On account of his tragic, highly symbolic suicide, Cato is often termed Uticensis ("of Utica"), in order to differentiate him from his homonymous ancestor, Cato "the Elder" or "the Censor".^{[citation needed]}

In 1593, a suicide occurred in Wimpfen. A young, pregnant woman, who had become a widow a few weeks before, was lying in her bed. She took a large knife, opened her belly in a cross, and threw out the fetus, her own intestines, and dug out her spleen and flung that out as well. She lived for 10 hours after the act, and when the priests sought to bring her a final consolation and blessing, she said it would all be in vain, because she was a daughter of the devil, and was beyond any sort of redemption. Then, she died, was put in a sack, and was thrown in the river. She was affluent, so it was clear that poverty had not driven her to this act.^[28]

In 1617, a merchant in the municipality Grossglockau^[29] slit up his abdomen so that the intestines fell out; he then pulled out his stomach and threw it on the bed. The chronicler notes he lived long enough to regret his action.^[30]

See also

Look up disembowelment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Disembowelment.

• Blood eagle
• List of people hanged, drawn and quartered
• Seppuku

References