CBS News reports, “An 8-year-old second-grader in Los Angeles is a typical pati
CBS News reports, “An 8-year-old second-grader in Los Angeles is a typical patient. Born a girl, the child announced at 18 months, ‘I a boy’ and has stuck with that belief.”[1] Such testimonies are becoming increasingly common, and they are giving rise to ethical and legal dilemmas. Children in the United States as young as four have received sex change therapy, beginning with psychological counseling, followed by hormone blockers when puberty begins, and the option of sex-reassignment surgery when they come of age.[2] Furthermore, in the state of Oregon, 15-year-old children can now receive a sex change operation without parental consent or notice, and the State will pay for it through its Medicaid Oregon Health Plan.[3]
Children in the United States as young as four have received sex change therapy.
In the most extreme cases of gender dysphoria, individuals are not content to merely present as the gender of their choice. Instead, they choose to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. This may involve top surgery, bottom surgery, or both. Psychiatrist Dr. Jack Drescher comments:
[Gender dysphoria is] different from other mental disorders. Usually with a mental disorder, we try and change the person’s mind. This is the only mental disorder where the treatment is changing the body. Here the treatment has emerged to align the person’s body to match their gender identity.[4]
According to The Encyclopedia of Surgery, “The number of gender reassignment procedures conducted in the United States each year is estimated at between 100 and 500. The number worldwide is estimated to be two to five times larger.”[5]
In the state of Oregon, fifteen-year-old children can now receive a sex change operation without parental consent or notice, and the state will pay for it.
Where such exist, pre-requisites for sex-reassignment surgery do not require objective evidence that the individual is trapped within the wrong body. Instead, the recommendation of mental health specialists and a history of hormonal therapy qualify as sufficient evidence.[6] This is because there is no objective standard for determining whether an individual’s gender identity is misaligned with their physical body. In answer to the question, “How do I know if I’m transgender?” LPC and gender therapist Dara Hoffman-Fox suggests, “Does it feel like your physical body matches the gender that you can tell you are in your brain?”[7] Somehow personal and subjective feelings have become the standard for determining the medical necessity of sex-reassignment surgery. This is because the assumption is that the way an individual feels about themselves is the highest standard for determining reality. Moreover, nobody has the right to question anyone’s personal feelings about themselves … at least when it comes to the subject of gender identity.
Personal and subjective feelings have become the standard for determining the medical necessity of sex-reassignment surgery.
With such a malleable standard, it is not s