By Patrick F. Cannon

Pity the poor doctor or nurse who checks either “male” or “female” on a birth certificate without asking the baby in question, or at least “its” parents for their preference. The evidence of one’s eyes – or science or logic – no longer applies when making such a momentous decision. It’s like saying Donald Trump is sane, or President Biden is just entering his prime.

            If sex can be reassigned, what are we to say to the man who thinks he’s Napolean? Don’t invade Russia? Or, instead, try to determine why he harbors this delusion and seek ways – medical or psychological – to return him to some sense of reality. We certainly don’t give him a uniform and a musket.

            Yet, when some prepubescent child decides he or she was “assigned” the wrong sex at birth, doctors in this country are only too willing to prescribe puberty blockers to prevent a stage on the natural progression from childhood to adulthood.  And, of course, they could not do this without the complicity of the parents.

            (By the way, does anyone doubt that the internet and social media sites have contributed to the reasons why increased number of kids are “confused” about their sexuality?)

            Later, after hormone and other treatments have given the patient some of the physical attributes of the other sex, a surgeon may be called upon to perform so-called sexual reassignment surgery. Now, when you go under the knife, you expect it will cure some defined illness. You have blocked arteries; the surgeon opens them up, thus restoring better circulation. You have a bum knee; it’s replaced with something that works better and doesn’t hurt all the time.

            Sexual reassignment surgery – once, more properly, sex-change surgery – cures no physical condition. Even plastic surgery can have a positive effect beyond just giving you a nicer nose – it can help burn victims, or those born with birth defects. But sexual reassignment surgery is irreversible. It removes existing sexual organs and replaces them with non-functioning fantasies. In truth, nothing can be done – not chemically, nor surgically – to change the sex you were born with (“assignment” is a euphemism, isn’t it?).

            In this wonderful modern age we live in, we often do things because we can, not because we should. So, it came as something of a shock when Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) published a study by Dr. Hillary Cass that found that the evidence for medicalized treatment of adolescent gender distress (or dysphoria, as its commonly known) was “inadequate or poor.” As a result, the NHS will no longer cover such treatment. Other European countries, including the ultra-progressive Scandinavians, have followed suit.

            Not the United States. Groups like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics predictably held fast to their support of puberty blockers and gender-affirming care. But they can’t offer any study comparable to the NHSs to support their position. If you’re looking for reasons why so many Americans are drifting away from the Democratic Party – which is associated, fairly or not, with such policies – this must be on the list.

            There have always been people who would prefer to be the other sex and have lived their lives that way. And if they reach an age when they can make an informed decision (which I contend must be at least 21), then gender-affirming care and even surgery should be available to them, so long as they don’t ask me to pay for it. Of course, although you may not be aware of it, some insurance plans are required to cover it, and the Federal Government pays for it in prisons and in the armed services. The barracks shower must be a far more interesting place than it was in my day.

Copyright 2024, Patrick F. Cannon