A Dutch man has turned his amputated leg into a floor lamp.

Leo Bonten broke his right leg in an accident, and his doctors recommended the lower segment be removed after a bacterial infection took hold. But the real fight to keep his limb began when Bonten told the hospital that he wanted to turn it into a floor lamp.

The hospital initially refused, saying that doing so would violate health and safety codes, but as Bonten told the NRC Reader, “They had no leg to stand on.”

Eventually, the hospital relented and allowed Bonten to reclaim ownership of his leg, but that the leg would have to be first buried and then exhumed before he could add the lighting elements.

The lamp sees Bonten’s lower leg suspended in a cylinder of fluid, with the lamp part attached above.

Arguably the weirdest part is actually the wavy metal bit (Image: NCR Reader)

But the story of Bonten’s leg lamp doesn’t end there; the Dutch man claims that he had fallen on times so hard, he resorted to putting his leg lamp for sales on eBay. At a cost of €100,000.

Free delivery, at least (Image: Improbable)

The listing was later removed by the online auctioneers, as eBay’s terms of service forbid patrons from buying or selling human remains.

The whole leg affair has started a serious ethical debate in the Netherlands, with Bonten’s limb a focal point in panel discussions over who owns a body part once it has been removed. 

(H/T: Improbable)