A Mississippi man is to amputate his legs using a home-made guillotine and broadcast the whole grisly operation live online.

Paul Morgan is paralysed from the knees down after suffering crippling injuries in a freak accident in 1986 when he was run over by a truck pulling a boat.

Financial restraints have denied him the chance to remove his lower legs and replace them with artificial limbs that would enable him to run and jump again.

But after 15 years of suffering he's decided to amputate his legs himself in a bid to improve his quality of life.

Although many regard his actions as extreme, he said his do-it-yourself amputation is partly a protest at being denied the operation because it was deemed non-essential. And without the funds to pay for the operation privately, Morgan believes he has no other choice.

Understandably, the site - www.cutoffmyfeet.com - has caused bewilderment among Net users who've stumbled across the site believing the whole thing is a sick hoax.

Even if he doesn't bleed to death then surely the shock would kill him, remarked one Net user who visited the site. He cannot be serious, said another.

But according to Morgan, he is dead serious. "Even if someone donates the money for the operation, prosthetics and aftercare, I'm still going ahead with it," he said after The Register caught up with him at his home in Biloxi.

Asked about the pain associated with such a procedure he said: "I'll just have to grin and bear it." That has to be the understatement of the year.

Thankfully, Morgan says he will have a local anaesthetic during the operation and he hopes to have a team of doctors and medical staff on hand to tend to his wounds.

Even so, the very thought of such self-inflicted personal injury leaves many people with a sense of disbelief and repulsion. That Morgan's sanity has been called into question in understandable. Yet he assured us he would go ahead with the operation and broadcast it live online.

Morgan is charging $20 a time for people to watch the amputation and hopes 200,000 will tune in to the event scheduled to take place on September 19.

Before that, he intends to Webcast the building of the guillotine which should start around 20 August. ®

Related Link

www.cutoffmyfeet.com