Amputation as horror.

In this movie (and others) I find the thought of mutilating a person's body, particularly amputation of a limb, to be personally horrific, even if it's under anesthetic. I just have a visceral reaction of horror to the thought of chopping off someone's hand, arm, whatever. (I find it disturbing also when modern people in real life get themselves surgically altered for non-medical reasons, like I saw a guy who got his tongue split once, on TV, and I found it be quite disturbing.)

At the same time, if I hear about someone having a leg removed due to diabetes or a war injury or whatever when it is done to save a life or help the person survive, this thought, while it is sad, does not induce horror. In my former career, a lot of my clients were people with various disabilities, and so I worked with a lot of people who had lost limbs...but I never experienced horror from this.

Besides this film, Browning's other film Freaks also deals with amputation for non-medical reasons.