View source for Disembowelment

{{Short description|Removal of organs from the gastrointestinal tract}}
{{about|the act of disembowelment|the band|Disembowelment (band)}}
{{refimprove|date=April 2024}}
[[File:Gutting fish in Isla Margarita.JPG|thumb|right|Disemboweling a fish during food preparation]]
[[File:Swine inspection USDA.jpg|thumb|Swine inspection by [[USDA]] of disemboweled hogs]]
'''Disembowelment''', '''disemboweling''', '''evisceration''', '''eviscerating''' or '''gutting''' is the removal of [[Organ (biology)|organs]] from the [[gastrointestinal tract]] (bowels or viscera), usually through an incision made across the [[Abdomen|abdominal]] area. Disembowelment is a standard routine operation during [[animal slaughter]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gill |first1=C. O. |title=Microbiological conditions of meats from large game animals and birds |journal=Meat Science |date=1 October 2007 |volume=77 |issue=2 |pages=149–160 |doi=10.1016/j.meatsci.2007.03.007 |pmid=22061585 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0309174007000885 |language=en |issn=0309-1740|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In ancient Rome, disembowelment of animals was practiced for divination, and was known as [[haruspicy]]. Disembowelment of humans may result from an accident, but has also been used as a method of [[torture]] or [[execution]]. In such practices, disembowelment may be accompanied by various forms of torture or the removal of other vital organs.

==Dressing of animals==
[[Image:Field dressing a deer.jpg|thumb|[[Deer hunting|Deer hunter]] in the state of Michigan in the [[United States]] [[Field dressing (hunting)|field-dressing]] a [[deer]]]]
[[File:1041Men cleaning, dressing, gutting and cutting chickens in the Philippines 09.jpg|thumb|Men cleaning, dressing, gutting and cutting chickens in the [[Philippines]]]]
The removal of internal organs is a typical operation in meat processing also known as '''dressing'''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wilkanowska |first1=Anna |last2=Kokoszyński |first2=Dariusz |title=COMPARISON OF SLAUGHTER VALUE IN PHARAOH QUAIL OF DIFFERENT AGES |journal=Journal of Central European Agriculture |date=19 July 2011 |doi=10.5513/jcea.v12i1.943 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/jcea/article/view/943 |language=en |issn=1332-9049}}</ref> Land animals and birds are typically killed and bled before the dressing. The process of dressing includes the removal of heart, liver and lungs ([[offal|pluck]]) as well as disembowelment by an abdominal cut.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Swanenburg |first1=M |last2=Urlings |first2=H. A. P |last3=Snijders |first3=J. M. A |last4=Keuzenkamp |first4=D. A |last5=van Knapen |first5=F |title=Salmonella in slaughter pigs: prevalence, serotypes and critical control points during slaughter in two slaughterhouses |journal=International Journal of Food Microbiology |date=8 November 2001 |volume=70 |issue=3 |pages=243–254 |doi=10.1016/S0168-1605(01)00545-1 |pmid=11764190 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168160501005451 |language=en |issn=0168-1605|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Disembowelment is typically accompanied by '''bung dropping''' or '''bunging'''.<ref name=sedu>{{cite web |title=At-Home Hog Slaughter |url=https://extension.sdstate.edu/home-hog-slaughter |website=extension.sdstate.edu |access-date=15 August 2023 |language=en}}</ref> Bung dropping is the circumcision of the [[rectum]] from the carcass and is the first step of the gutting.<ref name=sedu/> Puncturing of bowels are avoided during the evisceration. Otherwise, bacteria from the intestinal contents might spread over the carcass.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Van Ba |first1=Hoa |last2=Seo |first2=Hyun-Woo |last3=Seong |first3=Pil-Nam |last4=Kang |first4=Sun-Moon |last5=Cho |first5=Soo-Huyn |last6=Kim |first6=Yoon-Seok |last7=Park |first7=Beom-Young |last8=Moon |first8=Sung-Sil |last9=Kang |first9=Se-Ju |last10=Choi |first10=Yong-Min |last11=Kim |first11=Jin-Hyoung |title=The fates of microbial populations on pig carcasses during slaughtering process, on retail cuts after slaughter, and intervention efficiency of lactic acid spraying |journal=International Journal of Food Microbiology |date=2 April 2019 |volume=294 |pages=10–17 |doi=10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2019.01.015 |pmid=30711888 |s2cid=73414634 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168160518306597 |issn=0168-1605|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In case of birds, the abdominal cut extends up to the [[cloaca]] separating it from the rest of the skin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Engelbrecht, A. |title=Ostrich manual |date=2014 |publisher=Western Cape Department of Agriculture |page=74 |url=https://scholar.cu.edu.eg/wafaaabdelghany/files/book_50.pdf#page=74 |chapter=Slaughter-Bird Production And Product Quality.}}</ref> 

===Industrial dressing line===
{{anchor|bung dropper}}A '''bung dropper''' is a device used in [[slaughterhouses]] for fast bung dropping in a dressing line.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=de Medeiros Esper |first1=Ian |last2=From |first2=Pål J. |last3=Mason |first3=Alex |title=Robotisation and intelligent systems in abattoirs |journal=Trends in Food Science & Technology |date=1 February 2021 |volume=108 |pages=214–222 |doi=10.1016/j.tifs.2020.11.005 |s2cid=230599141 |language=en |issn=0924-2244|doi-access=free |hdl=11250/2828986 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> The probe of a bung dropper is inserted into the rectum to loosen it from the carcass by circumcising with a sharp rotating cylinder.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stijn |first1=Hofkens |title=The decontaminating effects of lactic acid on pig-associated Salmonella and Yersinia enterocolitica |date=2017 |publisher=Diss. Ghent University |url=https://libstore.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/002/349/742/RUG01-002349742_2017_0001_AC.pdf}}</ref> '''Belly opener''' is a device for performing the abdominal cut.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Crotta |first1=Matteo |last2=Luisi |first2=Elena |last3=Dadios |first3=Nikolaos |last4=Guitian |first4=Javier |title=Probabilistic modelling of events at evisceration during slaughtering of pigs using expert opinion: Quantitative data in support of stochastic models of risk of contamination |journal=Microbial Risk Analysis |date=1 April 2019 |volume=11 |pages=57–65 |doi=10.1016/j.mran.2018.10.001 |s2cid=125223101 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352352218300033 |language=en |issn=2352-3522}}</ref>

==Mummification and embalming==
Some types of [[animal mummification]] include evisceration.<ref>{{cite book |last1=ikram |first1=salima |title=divine creatures: animal mummies in ancient egypt |date=2005 |publisher=American Univ in Cairo Press |isbn=978-977-424-858-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zz5oNwmdaTcC |language=en}}</ref> The process of [[embalming]] sometimes includes removing the internal organs. [[Mummy|Mummification]], especially as practiced by the [[ancient Egypt]]ians, entailed the removal of internal organs prior to the preservation of the remainder of the body.  The removed organs were embalmed, stored in [[canopic jars]] and then placed in the tomb with the body.

James Cook, on his second voyage, noted an embalming custom on some of the Pacific islands his crew visited, a custom utilizing transanal evisceration:<ref>* {{cite book|last=Potts|first=James|title=The Hibernian Magazine, Or, Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JbkRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA693|year=1784|publisher=James Potts|location=Dublin|page=693, col 2|access-date=2013-03-16}}</ref>{{blockquote|We found the body not only entire in every part; but, what surprised us much more, was, that putrefaction had scarcely begun (...); though the climate is one of the hottest, and Tee had been dead above five months.(...) Such were Mr. [[William Anderson (naturalist)|Anderson]]'s remarks to me, who also told me, on his enquiring into the method of effecting this preservation of their dead bodies, he had been informed, that, soon after their death, they are disemboweled, by drawing their intestines, and other viscera, out at the anus; and the whole cavity is then filled or stuffed with cloth; introduced through the same part(...)}}

==Transanal evisceration of humans==
{{anchor|Transanal evisceration}}
{{See also|Pelvic exenteration}}
When a portion of the intestinal tract is forcefully pulled from or expelled from the body through the [[anus]], it is referred to as ''transanal evisceration''. Following the first report of transanal evisceration by Brodie in 1827, more than 70 cases have been reported to date, the majority occurring spontaneously in elderly individuals. Straining, chronic constipation, and rectal ulcerations predispose to spontaneous perforation in elderly individuals.<ref name="ncbi.nlm.nih.gov">{{cite journal|last1=Medappil|first1=Noushif|title=Blunt abdominal trauma with transanal small bowel evisceration|journal=J Emerg Trauma Shock|date=Jan–Mar 2013|volume=6|issue=1|pages=56–57|doi=10.4103/0974-2700.106328|pmid=23493429|pmc=3589862 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Cases of transanal evisceration of children whilst sitting over uncovered [[swimming pool]] drains have been reported; notable cases include Valerie Lakey (1993) and [[Death of Abigail Taylor|Abigail Taylor]] (2007). In Taylor's case, the suction dislodged and damaged her [[liver]] and [[pancreas]]; several meters of her [[small intestine]] were forcefully pulled through her anus.  In both these cases, the victims were left with [[short bowel syndrome]] and required feeding by total [[parenteral nutrition]]. After multiple operations, Taylor later died from transplant-related cancer.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.wsbtv.com/news/13626279/detail.html |title=Wading Pool Drain Sucks Out Girl's Organ |date=5 Jul 2007 |work=WSB Atlanta |access-date=28 June 2011 |location=MINNEAPOLIS |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629124327/http://www.wsbtv.com/news/13626279/detail.html |archive-date=29 June 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/160648/ |title=Family Reaches Settlement that Guarantees $25 Million Payment |date=January 14, 1997 |work=[[WRAL-TV]] |access-date=29 October 2010 |location=RALEIGH}}</ref>

A person, usually a child, can suffer a similar injury if a heavy weight is applied directly over the abdomen. Large intestine (rectosigmoid) rupture with transanal evisceration has been reported from blunt abdominal trauma and suction injuries. A direct blow or impingement of intestine between the vertebrae and anterior abdominal wall results in sudden increase in the intra-abdominal or intraluminal pressure of the intestine and rupture.<ref name="ncbi.nlm.nih.gov"/> The downward pressure forces a portion of the intestine to burst from the anus.

==Disembowelment of humans as torture and deterrence==
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2023}}
[[File:Martyrdom by disembowelling and by decapitation of two men. Wellcome V0033265.jpg|thumb|Martyrdom by disembowelling and by decapitation of two men]]
If a living person is disemboweled, it is invariably fatal without major medical intervention. Historically, disembowelment has been used as a severe form of [[capital punishment]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Michael |title=Torture and the inhumane |journal=Criminal Justice Ethics |date=1 June 2007 |doi=10.1080/0731129x.2007.9992216 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0731129X.2007.9992216 |language=EN |issn=0731-129X}}</ref>  
<!--If the intestinal tract alone is removed, death follows after several hours of gruesome pain. The victim will often be fully conscious while the torture is performed if the vital organs aren't damaged, and will be able to see their intestine being removed, but will eventually lose consciousness due to blood loss. However, in some forms of intentional disembowelment, [[decapitation]] or the removal of the [[heart]] and [[lung]]s would hasten the victim's death.{{fact|date=April 2024}}-->
===Asia===
====Vietnam====
Various accounts have asserted that during the [[Vietnam War]], members of the [[Viet Cong]] sometimes made calculated use of disembowelment as a means of [[psychological warfare]], to coerce and intimidate rural [[peasant]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hubbel |first=John G. |title=The Blood-Red Hands of Ho Chi Minh |journal=Reader's Digest |date= November 1968  |pages=61–67 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Off With Their Hands |journal=Newsweek |date=15 May 1967}}</ref> Peer De Silva, former head of the [[Saigon]] department of the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA), wrote that from as early as 1963, Viet Cong units were using disembowelment and other methods of mutilation as psychological warfare.<ref name=desilva>{{cite book |last=De Silva |first=Peer |title=Sub Rosa: The CIA and the Uses of Intelligence |year=1978 |publisher=Time Books |place=New York |isbn=0-8129-0745-0}}</ref> The extent, however, to which this punishment was perpetrated may be impossible to gauge and while detailed accounts survive regarding how civilians were disemboweled by Viet Cong,{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} the use of this torture appears to have been quite arbitrary and there is no record that such actions were sanctioned by the [[North Vietnam]]ese government in [[Hanoi]]. Disembowelment and other methods of intimidation and torture were intended to frighten civilian peasants at a local level into cooperating with the Viet Cong or discourage them from cooperating with the [[South Vietnamese Army]] or its allies.<ref name=desilva/>{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

===Europe===

====Romania====
In early 1941, during the [[Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom#The Bucharest pogrom|Bucharest pogrom]] in which 125 [[Jewish]] civilians were killed, multiple cases of torture including disembowelment were recorded.<ref name="Ancel">{{cite book|last=Ancel|first=Jean|title=History of the Holocaust – Romania |year=2002|publisher=[[Yad Vashem]]|location=[[Israel]]|isbn=965-308-157-8|language=he}} For details of the Pogrom itself, see volume I, pp. 363–400.</ref>

====Netherlands====
On 10 July 1584, [[Balthasar Gérard]] shot and killed [[William the Silent|William of Orange]], who had advocated for [[Spanish Netherlands|Dutch independence]] from the [[Philip II of Spain|King of Spain]].<ref name=jardine>{{Cite book| author= Jardine, Lisa| author-link= Lisa Jardine|title= The Awful End of William the Silent: The First Assassination of A Head of State With A Handgun |place= London |publisher= HarperCollins |year= 2005 |isbn= 0-00-719257-6 }}</ref> The assassin was interrogated and condemned to death almost immediately.<ref>{{cite book|last=Motley|first=John L.|title=The Rise of the Dutch Republic, Vol. 3|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4836|author-link=John Lothrop Motley|year=1856}}</ref> On 14 July, after suffering various tortures during each of the five days since the assassination, Gérard was disemboweled and [[dismembered]] while still alive, after which his heart was torn out and then he was beheaded by his Dutch executioners.<ref name=jardine/><ref>{{Cite book|last= Foucault|author-link= Michel Foucault|first =Michel |title=[[Discipline and Punish]] |chapter = The Spectacle of the scaffold. }}</ref>

====Roman Empire====
[[File:Martyrdom of saint erasmus.jpg|thumb|Martyrdom of saint Erasmus]]
[[Christianity|Christian]] tradition states that [[Erasmus of Formiae]], also known as Saint Elmo, was finally executed by disembowelment in about A.D. 303, after he had suffered extreme forms of torture during the persecutions of Emperor [[Diocletian]] and [[Maximian]].{{fact|date=April 2024}}

====England<span class="anchor" id="DisembowelmentEngland"></span>====
[[File:BNMsFr2643FroissartFol97vExecHughDespenser.jpg|thumb|The execution of [[Hugh Despenser the Younger]], who was hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason in 1326]]
In [[England]], the punishment of being "[[hanged, drawn and quartered]]" was typically used for men convicted of [[high treason]]. This referred to the practice of dragging a man by a hurdle (similar to a fence panel) through the streets, removing him from the hurdle and (1) hanging him from the neck (but removing him before [[death]]), (2) drawing (i.e. disembowelling) him slowly on a wooden block by slitting open his abdomen, removing his [[entrail]]s and his other organs (which were frequently thrown on a fire), and then [[decapitation|decapitating]] him and (3) quartering, i.e. dividing the body into four pieces.  The man's head and quarters would often be [[parboiled]] and displayed as a [[Deterrence (legal)|warning]] to others. As part of the disembowelment, the man was also typically [[emasculation|emasculated]] and his genitals and entrails would be burned.{{fact|date=April 2024}}

[[William Harrington (priest)|William Harrington]], Hugh le Despenser the Younger and William Parry are examples of men who were hanged, drawn and quartered – tortured on the rack, [[Hanging|hanged]] until not quite dead, subjected to emasculation, disembowelment and then chopped into quarters.<ref name="Schama">{{cite news |first=Simon |last=Schama |title=Simon Schama's John Donne |date=26 May 2009 |publisher=BBC2 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo |access-date=18 June 2009}}</ref>

====Germany====
From the 15th century, ordinances are retained that threaten with a terrible punishment those who stripped off the bark of a standing tree in the common woods. A typical wording is found in the 1401 ordinance from [[Oberursel (Taunus)|Oberursel]]:<ref>For a number of such ordinances, see * {{cite book|last=Grimm|first=Jacob|title=Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wQqgbG5oBaAC&pg=PA519|pages=519–20|year=1854|publisher=Dieterich|location=Göttingen|access-date=2013-03-13}} '''German original''': "''und wo der begriffen wird, der einen stehenden baum schälet, dem wäre gnad nützer dan recht u. wann man deme sol recht thun, soll man ihm seinen nabel bei seinem bauch aufschneiden u. ein darm daraus thun, denselbigen nageln an den stamm u. mit der person herumgehen, so ,lang er ein darm in seinem leib hat''"</ref>
{{blockquote|"...and whoever is caught stripping off a standing tree, mercy would have been more beneficial to him than the law is; for when law is to be fulfilled, then one is to cut up his stomach at the navel, and pull out a length of the gut. The gut is to be nailed to the tree, and one is keep going around that tree with the person, so long as he still has any part of the gut left in his body."}}
[[Jacob Grimm]] observes that no case of the punishment being carried out has been found in records from that period (15th century), but 300 to 500 years earlier, the [[West Slavs|Western Slavic]] tribes like the [[Wends]]  are said to have revenged themselves upon Christians by binding the guts to an erect pole and driving them around until the person was fully eviscerated.<ref>'''i)''' General comment, with connotations of this being a type of human sacrifice {{cite book|last=Hübner|first=Johann|title=Kurtze Fragen aus der politischen Historia, volume 6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9t4GAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA500|page=500|year=1703|publisher=Gleditsch|access-date=2013-03-13}}, '''ii)''' 8th century description from 772-73, {{cite book|last=Caesar|first=Aquilin Julius|title=Beschreibung des Herzogthum Steyermarks, Volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4wAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA88|pages=88–89|year=1786|publisher=Zaunrith|location=Gräz|access-date=2013-03-13}},  '''iii)''' Danish 1096 retaliation on Wends, by like execution method, {{cite book|last=Sell|first=Johann Jakob|title=Geschichte des Herzogthums Pommern, volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iQcBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA88|pages=88–89|year=1819|publisher=Flittner|location=Berlin|access-date=2013-03-13}}, '''iv)''' 1131 pagan attacks on Christians by Wends, {{cite book|last=Röper|first=Friedrich L.|title=Geschichte und Anekdoten von Dobberan in Mecklenburg|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f30AAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA111|pages=111–13|year=1808|publisher=Self-published|location=Dobberan|access-date=2013-03-13}}</ref> In the 13th century, members of the now extinct Baltic ethnic group of [[Old Prussians]] in one of the battles against the [[Teutonic Knights]], are said to have captured one such knight in 1248 and made him undergo this punishment.<ref>{{cite book|last=Voigt|first=Johannes|title=Geschichte Preussens: Von den altesten Zeiten bis zum Untergange der Herrschaft des Deutschen Ordens. Die Zeit von der Ankunft des Ordens bis zum Frieden 1249, Volume 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EcZOAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA613|pages=613–614|year=1827|publisher=Bornträger|location=Königsberg|access-date=2013-03-13}}</ref>

===Americas===
[[File:Nezahualcoyotl.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Nezahualcoyotl as shown in the [[Codex Ixtlilxochitl]], folio 106R, painted roughly a century after Nezahualcoyotl's death]]
[[Nezahualcoyotl (tlatoani)|Nezahualcoyotl]], a 15th-century [[Acolhua]]n ruler of [[Texcoco (altepetl)|Texcoco]], a member of the [[Aztec Triple Alliance]] (now [[Mexico]]), promulgated a law code that was partially preserved. Those who had engaged in the passive role of homosexual anal intercourse had their intestines pulled out, then their bodies were filled with ash, and finally, were burnt.  The active or penetrating partner was simply [[Suffocation in ash|suffocated in a heap of ash]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Täubel|first=Gottlob|title=Allgemeines Historienbuch von den Merkwurdigsten Entdeckungen fremder ehedem ganz unbekannter Länder und Inseln|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KooM0KKNHr8C&q=sodomiterey&pg=RA1-PA207|pages=206–07|year=1796|publisher=Gottlob Täubel|location=Vienna|access-date=2013-03-13}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=February 2022}}

==Suicide==
[[File:Seppuku-2.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Ukiyo-e]]'' woodblock print of warrior about to perform ''[[seppuku]]'', from the [[Edo period]]]]
In [[Japan]], disembowelment played a central part as a method of execution or the ritualized [[suicide]] of a [[samurai]]. In killing themselves by this method, they were deemed to be free from the dishonor resulting from their crimes. The most common form of disembowelment was referred to in Japanese as ''[[seppuku]]'' (or, colloquially, ''hara-kiri''), literally "stomach cutting," involving two cuts across the abdomen, sometimes followed by pulling out one's own [[Viscus|viscera]].{{fact|date=April 2024}}

The act of [[decapitation]] by a second (''kaishaku-nin'') was added to this ritual suicide in later times in order to shorten the suffering of the samurai or leader, an attempt at rendering the ritual more humane. Even later the knife was just a simple formality and the swordsman would decapitate before the subject could reach for it.  The commission of a crime or dishonorable act was only one of many reasons for the performance of seppuku; others included the atonement of cowardice, as a means of apology, or following the loss of a battle or the surrender of a [[Japanese castle|castle]].{{fact|date=April 2024}}

The Japanese tradition of ''seppuku'' is a well known example of highly ritualized suicide, within a wider cultural world of norms and symbolism. However, reported examples of suicides exist, in which a person performed disembowelment on himself or herself, without any ambient culture of approved, or expected, suicide.{{fact|date=April 2024}}

The Spartan king [[Cleomenes I]]  is reported, in a fit of madness, to have slit his stomach open, and ripped his own [[bowels]] out.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lauremberg|first=Peter|title=Neue und vermehrte Acerra philologica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wcRCAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA985|page=985|year=1708|publisher=Johann A. Plener|location=Frankfurt and Leipzig|access-date=2013-03-16}}</ref>

Roman statesman [[Cato the Younger]] committed suicide in [[Utica, Tunisia|Utica]], after [[Cato the Younger#Caesar's civil war|his side]] lost to [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]], by plunging a knife in his own gut, in the dead of night. According to [[Parallel Lives|Plutarch]], Cato's son heard the commotion from a nearby room, and called a doctor who stitched the wound closed; after his son and the doctor left, Cato tore the stitching open with his hand and died. On account of his tragic, highly symbolic suicide, Cato is often termed ''Uticensis'' ("of Utica"), in order to differentiate him from his homonymous ancestor, [[Cato the Elder|Cato "the Elder" or "the Censor"]].{{fact|date=April 2024}}

In 1593, a suicide occurred in [[Bad Wimpfen|Wimpfen]]. A young, pregnant woman, who had become a widow a few weeks before, was lying in her bed. She took a large knife, opened her belly in a cross, and threw out the fetus, her own intestines, and dug out her spleen and flung it out as well. She lived for 10 hours after the act, and when the priests sought to bring her a final consolation and blessing, she said it would all be in vain, because she was a daughter of the devil, and was beyond any sort of redemption. Then, she died, was put in a sack, and was thrown in the river. She was affluent, so it was clear that poverty had not driven her to this act.<ref>Forty years earlier, in 1555 Seidenberg (nowadays [[Zawidow]]), a woman who had become pregnant by another man than her (absent) husband sought to preserve her honour by cutting out the fetus. Having pulled it out, along with much else, she began screaming of pain, but no one could help her, and she died three days later. {{cite book|last=Döpler|first=Jacob|title=Theatrum Poenarum, volume 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LZlBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA313|pages=313–14|year=1697|publisher=Friedrich Lanckischen Erben|location=Leipzig|access-date=2013-03-16}}</ref>

In 1617, a merchant in the municipality Grossglockau<ref>For status as municipality, see:{{cite book|last=Janssen|first=Johannes|title=History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N509AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA336|page=336|year=1896|publisher=Taylor and Francis|location=London|access-date=2013-03-16}}</ref> slit his abdomen so that the intestines fell out; he then pulled out his stomach and threw it on the bed. The chronicler notes he lived long enough to regret his action.<ref>{{cite book|last=Khevenhüller|first=Franz C.|title=Annales Ferdinandei, volume 7-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnFZAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PT138|page=column 1158|year=1723|publisher=M.G. Weidmann|location=Leipzig|access-date=2013-03-16}}</ref>

==See also==
{{wiktionary}}
{{Commons category|Disembowelment}}
* [[Blood eagle]]
* [[List of people hanged, drawn and quartered]]
* [[Seppuku]]
{{-}}

==References==
{{Reflist|25em}}

{{Capital punishment}}
[[Category:Execution methods]]
[[Category:Torture]]
[[Category:Slaughter methods]]
[[Category:Suicide by sharp object]]