Saudi Judge Seeks to Sever Man's Spine

An eye for an eye—a spine for a spine? A judge in Saudi Arabia has been asking hospitals whether or not they can sever the spinal cord of a man convicted of paralyzing another man in an attack with a cleaver, the AP reports. At least one hospital has refused on ethical grounds. The victim's brother says "blood money" will not be an acceptable alternative.

Under Saudi law, victims are allowed to request that their attackers receive the same injuries they did, although the country's leaders have been trying to clamp down on extreme punishment. A man had his teeth pulled out because he knocked somebody else's out in a fight, and "we have also had cases of people sentenced to blindness because they have caused the blindness of another person," an Amnesty spokesman says. "But never anything involving a spinal cord." (More Saudi Arabia stories.)