I didn’t even know such a thing was chargeable offense but I guess I was naïve. In an AP story (04/01/06) out of Charlotte, North Carolina, three men Richard Sciara, 61, Danny Reeves, 49, and Michael Mendez, 60, without any prior medical training admitted to operating on six consenting clients over the course of last year. They performed a minimum of eight surgeries, including castrations and testicle replacements.

The suspects are all residents of the house in which the surgeries were performed in a dungeon-like basement in rural Haywood County, in western North Carolina. Detectives searched the home last week after strange complaints from a nearby neighbor to discover medical supplies including scalpels, sutures, bandages, anesthetic and artificial replacement testicles.

Officials also found video taping equipment and recordings of the various operations. Photos and videos made in the “dungeon” were available online on a locally produced BDSM website.

Each suspect is charged with 10 felony counts — five each of castration without malice and conspiracy to commit castration without malice as well as eight misdemeanor counts of performing medical acts without a license. According to the local District Attorney, Michael Bonfoey, each charge carries a maximum of three years and three months in prison.

Despite the plausible assumption that all the patients were willing participants with some traveling to visit the dungeon from as far away as South America that is not considered a defense according to the DA.

“Assuming that the victims consented to this — and we don’t know that for sure yet — that doesn’t make it a defense,” Bonfoey said. “We can’t have people, who are not medical doctors lopping off limbs and other body parts.”

Surprisingly, there’s no mention of any patients experiencing complications under the hands of these untrained surgeons. However, I suppose most truly submissive men might enjoy a permanent case of blue balls.