9 comments

  • blfr 41 minutes ago
    The 4chan toaster meme remains undefeated.

    https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1695828-that-is-my-fetish

    • matheusmoreira 16 minutes ago
      > fuck up your and countless other people's lives

      FTFY.

  • dredmorbius 31 minutes ago
    Generalised: principle-agent problem: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_proble...>.

    Particularly where the agent has specialised knowledge and/or privileged access.

    Not uncommonly an issue in IT.

    A growing concern with AI, to boot: Alignment.

    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_alignment>

    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alignment_Problem>

  • acjohnson55 50 minutes ago
    Wow, well, that's one of the more f'd up things I've ever read about. Not sure what else there is to say.
  • braiamp 48 minutes ago
    I don't know why the framing. This is easy: review the cases. If it has his hand it's tainted one way or the other. That's it.
    • alpinisme 43 minutes ago
      How is it tainted by that alone? It’s almost certain that at least some of the patients he amputated actually needed amputation.
      • matheusmoreira 14 minutes ago
        It doesn't automatically condemn him but it will probably trigger some kind of independent review of his cases. Better hope it's a perfect record.
    • tomasphan 41 minutes ago
      Could ask this about most news stories these days. They are so bold as to not even hide the opinionated framing anymore.
  • klipt 34 minutes ago
    Welp, that's enough internet for me today!

    Warning for the squeamish: I only made it partway through the article before deciding it would probably make me nauseous if I continued.

  • storus 45 minutes ago
    There is probably some correlation between one's profession and fetishes. We already know some programming languages attract certain types of personalities/attitudes so why would that be different elsewhere?
    • alpinisme 45 minutes ago
      There’s also a known correlation between firefighters and arsonists
    • atmavatar 9 minutes ago
      > We already know some programming languages attract certain types of personalities/attitudes

      ... to say nothing of the monsters that use spaces instead of tabs ;)

    • thrownaway561 32 minutes ago
      " We already know some programming languages attract certain types of personalities/attitudes"

      What evidence do you have to back that up? I think you're trying to pull facts out of your a* to rationalize something.

  • altairprime 48 minutes ago
    See also, I suppose, our discussion yesterday in Firefighter arson a long-standing issue https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49130853
  • thrownaway561 38 minutes ago
    Where is the line between fetish and mental illness??? Why is it that if someone wants to cut off their own healthy limbs, we are calling this a fetish rather than saying what it is, a mental illness. No rationale human being would want this done. And before people state that there are many fetishes and that people have the right to have them, if any of you had a friend that wanted this done, you would take them to a professional to get them help, you wouldn't be encouraging them to cut off their legs.
    • matheusmoreira 10 minutes ago
      > Where is the line between fetish and mental illness

      In general, the DSM V draws the line at hurting yourself or other people.

    • smallnix 28 minutes ago
      There's the component of suffering for sure, but I think being a functional member of society is the most important. So if you don't annoy anyone with your abnormalities you are more likely to be considered sane.
    • dd8601fn 31 minutes ago
      Probably because they’re not mutually exclusive and one more accurately reflects the component of arousal.
  • stavros 49 minutes ago
    Why do I care if someone wants to amputate their own legs? The only issue here is the insurance fraud, if that happened.
    • simonw 46 minutes ago
      Would you be comfortable later finding out that the surgeon who amputated your leg had an amputation fetish?

      What if that surgeon's advice had been part of the decision process that lead to you deciding to go ahead with amputation?

      • stavros 42 minutes ago
        Admittedly I'm not sure how an amputation fetish works. I don't know if it's about the act of amputation itself or if he liked looking at amputee porn, for example.

        Like someone might have a humiliation fetish but not actually like seeing people get humiliated in the workplace, for example. A sexual context and an everyday context are very different.

        • altairprime 37 minutes ago
          The plainspoken doubt being expressed indirectly / by-analogy here is:

          “Was their professional judgment impaired by their fetish?”

          That concern is the correct one.

          But: It doesn’t particularly matter how the fetish works, because people will assume that the existence of a fetish guarantees that judgment is compromised. That assumption will often be couched in terms of skepticism and doubt rather than as a flat statement of mistrust, especially here in the US. Unfortunately, the concern is valid, even when the frequent-but-not-always underlying assumption is not.

          Has the licensing board ruled on whether or not patient abuse occurred yet?

          If not, then, like, maybe don’t read this article at all. Wait for the outcomes of a professional evaluation. Don’t chase this particular ambulance. It’s not healthy to stop and admire a train wreck, and if it ends up not being a train wreck for patients, and professional care was given regardless, then it’s just gossiping about someone making irreversible physical edits to their body — a completely normal event around the world, starting at birth in many cultures, with widespread differences within each around how little/much editing is too little/much. I know HN likes to clamor about slipper slopes, and this is the sort of checkout aisle magazine headline fodder that leads to that:

          Should someone who has had breast reduction surgery be permitted to perform them?

          Should someone who has had leg lengthening surgery be permitted to perform them?

          Should someone who has had a facelift be permitted to perform them?

          Should someone who has had a tattoo be permitted to perform them?

          Should someone who has had hair removal sessions be permitted to perform them?

          Now, replace ‘to perform them’ with ‘to advise patients about them’; does the answer change?

          Yes, amputation is ‘extreme’; so are many, many other voluntary (e.g. heart tattoos) and involuntary (e.g. dysphoria-treating surgeries) body edits. The level of concern expressed for the practitioner’s judgment should not be a function of the severity of edit, and we should always be alert for signs of corruption in those practitioners — whether it’s tattoos, leg lengthening, or limb amputation.

        • darkerside 36 minutes ago
          Did you read the article? The man was sick
          • stavros 35 minutes ago
            I read half of it.
    • xnx 46 minutes ago
      Because it's a sign that he may have been amputating other people's limbs when not medically necessary.
      • zzrrt 8 minutes ago
        Or making necessary operations be unnecessarily long, painful, and unsuccessful. I think the anecdotes point to that at least.
    • matheusmoreira 24 minutes ago
      Because there's at least a possibility that the surgeon recommended and performed amputations in order to satisfy his own fetishes rather than to do what's best for his patients. As a doctor, he is supposed to do what is best for the patient, not himself.

      If it is verified that he has performed medically unwarranted amputations, that'd probably result in some kind of criminal charge due to the grave and permanent bodily harm involved. The loss of his medical license would be the least of his problems.

    • crtasm 37 minutes ago
      Joan's reported experience sounds like a pretty major issue to me.