Body disorder book plans

Two men's limbs were amputated at a Falkirk hospital

An American man who wants to have a healthy leg amputated is to publish a book with controversial surgeon Robert Smith.

Greg Furth has a rare psychiatric disorder where sufferers detest part of their body.

Mr Smith was criticised after he amputated the limbs of two men suffering from body dysmorphic disorder at Falkirk Royal Infirmary.

Despite being banned from carrying out the procedures at the infirmary, Mr Smith has applied to be allowed to perform operations at a private hospital, Abbey Kings Park, in Stirling.

Robert Smith: "Injury concern"

A medical advisory committee is now looking at his request.

Mr Furth, from New York, says he has witnessed two friends die following botched surgery to treat the disease.

He was present two years ago when a friend died from gangrene after having a healthy leg removed by a doctor.

The doctor had been struck off for sex offences and Mr Furth subsequently became a witnesses at the murder trial which followed.

Preventing patients taking the matter into their own hands is one of the reasons Mr Smith gave for going ahead with the procedure.

He said: "I became increasingly convinced that the patients had had very little success from their treatments by psychiatrists and psychologists over the years.

"The one concern is that many of these individuals will in fact injure themselves.

"There are quite a lot of anecdotal reports, largely from the States, of people taking the law into their own hands, lying on a railway line or shooting their legs off with a shotgun."