Disembowelment is evisceration, or the removing of vital organs, usually from the abdomen. The results are invariably fatal. It has historically been used as a form of capital punishment.
In England, the punishment of being "hanged, drawn, and quartered" referred to the practice of hanging a man from the neck (but not until dead), disemboweling him, and dividing the body into pieces. Women, for modesty's sake, were instead burned alive. (In France, the punishment of being "drawn" refers to being conveyed to the place of execution.)
During the Spanish Inquisition, the method of disembowelment was to cut a small hole in the victim's gut. The intestines are then drawn out slowly and carefully. The executioners kept the victim alive as long as possible during the process.
In Japan, disembowelment also formed part of the method of execution of 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 (where the term "hara-kiri" is regarded as insulting), involving two cuts across the abdomen, sometimes followed by beheading. In the English language, hara-kiri and seppuku are synonyms, and hara-kiri is by far the more common usage.
by Wadih Zein, M.D. Evisceration, Enucleation, and Exenteration are the three main surgical techniques by which all or part of the orbital contents are removed.
Evisceration is usually indicated in cases of endophthalmitis unresponsive to antibiotics and for improvement of cosmesis in a blind eye.
Enucleation is indicated for the above two conditions as well as for painful eyes with no useful vision, malignant intraocular tumors, in ocular trauma to avoid sympathetic ophthalmia in the second eye, in phthisis with degeneration, and in congenital anophthalmia or severe microphthalmia to enhance development of the bony orbit.
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