The law struggles to respond to consensual violence
If one man asks another if he can cut off his penis, and that other man agrees, whose place is it to say they can’t go through with it? The UK courts faced just this question in the case of Damien Byrnes, found guilty last month of using a kitchen knife to remove the genitals of Marius Gustavson, who consented to the procedure, and paid Byrnes over £1,500 to do it. Byrnes, a male escort, said his motives were financial (he has been sentenced to 5 years in prison). This is not an isolated incident.
