This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions are available. (February 2009)

Edward Bodkin is an American cutter (underground surgical practitioner) who was arrested in 1998 after police were tipped off that he was performing and videotaping voluntary human castrations at his home.

Bodkin, an only child who had grown up on a farm near Kokomo, Indiana, began advertising his services in the short-lived Ball Club Quarterly magazine, and castrated his "clients" in exchange for their permission to videotape the procedures. While voluntary chemical or surgical castration is legal for repeat sex offenders in certain US states, for individuals undergoing sex reassignment surgery, and for other medical reasons, in otherwise healthy individuals a desire for castration is often viewed as psychotic.

The Huntington, Indiana, county prosecutor charged Bodkin with practicing medicine without a license,( a Class C felony that made him eligible for thousands in fines and up to eight years in prison. He ultimately admitted to performing five castrations (he also kept "the trophies," in jars labelled with dates, initials, and an L or R). On April 12, 1999, Judge Mark McIntosh sentenced Bodkin to four years in jail, with two-and-a-half years suspended and credit for 69 days served. In a prepared statement, Bodkin said:

[edit] References

• Wissing, Douglas (1999-10-31). "The Great Castrator". The Independent: pp. 22–23.