When urologists go wild nothing good can happen

One of the things you learn, when you read as many news articles as I do, is that on any given day, somewhere in the world, somebody has had their penis unexpectedly removed.

These severings tend to come either at the hands of another -- as a result of a romantic misunderstanding -- or at the at hands of oneself -- as a result of a paranoid psychotic "incident" that usually ends with the severed penis being hurled at a former lover, if not the authorities.

For whatever reason, Thailand seems to the world leader in unwanted castration.

Since I'm relatively sane, cautiously avoid people who possess a temperament that would be conducive to amateur penectomy and don't plan on any trips to Thailand, I couldn't be more confident of living out the rest of my days with my body and penis as one.

But could it be, via Romania, a new trend in surprise penile removal is emerging :

Surgeon Naum Ciomu, who had been suffering from stress at the time, had been operating on patient Nelu Radonescu, 36, to correct a testicular malformation when he suddenly lost his temper. Grabbing a scalpel, he sliced off the penis in front of shocked nursing staff, and then placed it on the operating table where he chopped it into small pieces before storming out of the operating theatre at Bucharest hospital.

Romania's doctor's union is protesting that Ciomu is being forced to pay, out of his own pocket, for some the damages the court awarded Radonescu for his surgical misfortune. They argue Ciomu having his license suspended was punishment enough, and that this case sets a dangerous precedent.

A dangerous and horrifying precedent.