British surgeon, 50, who amputated own legs due to 'sexual interest', struck off medical register

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A British surgeon who amputated his own legs and was sentenced to prison, has been struck off the medical register.

This was after the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel decided on May 29 that his ability to continue as a practising surgeon was impaired by his convictions.

The panel also deemed him "an extremely high level of risk to public protection with no demonstrable lack of insight or remedial behaviour", BBC reported.

What happened

Neil Hopper, 50, had a "sexual interest" in amputation.

He had suffered from body dysphoria since he was a child and felt that his feet were an "unwelcome extra" and a "persisting never-ending discomfort" to him, the court heard previously.

He carried out hundreds of amputation operations on others before having his own legs removed in 2019.

He had used dry ice to freeze them.

Hopper claimed to insurers that the injuries to his legs were not self-inflicted, but the result of sepsis.

Surgeons subsequently removed his legs and were unaware of the real cause of his injuries.

In 2025, he was sentenced to two years and eight months' jail, and given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order after admitting to insurance fraud and possessing extreme pornography.

Hopper also bought pornography videos depicting body mutilation, including men willingly having their genitals removed.

'Incompatible' with medical profession

Robert Dudley, a representative from the General Medical Council of the UK, said that "it is apparent to the tribunal [that] Hopper was sexually motivated by the videos and by his own amputation", according to BBC.

Hopper's consumption of the videos and his association with their maker, a convicted Norwegian man who ran a business in extreme body modification, showed that he had a "a blatant disregard for the wellbeing of the public".

As such, the council found that Hopper's conduct was "incompatible" with the medical profession.

During the tribunal, Hopper, who had no representative, said that it had taken him years to "come to terms with what [he's] done".

"I'm not only ashamed of my actions, I'm appalled I was part of the machinery.

I cannot convey how sorry I am. It's behaviour I find impossible to understand. I'm so, so sorry."