Therapy (in Greek: θεραπεία), or treatment, is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a diagnosis. In the medical field, it is synonymous with the word “treatment”. Among psychologists, the term may refer specifically to psychotherapy or “talk therapy”.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapy
therapeia: attention, medical service Definition: care, attention, especially medical attention (treatment); hence almost: healing; meton: those who render service.
concordances.org/greek/2322.htm
If you want to play semantics games, please do your homework first so that I don’t need to do it for you. The definition of therapy is not anywhere near as strict as you’d like to imagine it is.
Your authoritarian definition of therapy would rule out chemotherapy for cancer, as well as some surgeries for cancer, including hysterectomy for uterine cancers and orchiectomy for testicular cancer. The difference here is that you believe in cancer because you can put it on a microscope slide, but you don’t believe trans women’s claims because you’ve never experienced what it’s like to be transgender. If you want to understand better, take up my challenge to Coptic and dress and act like a woman for a week. You won’t be able to do it, but just try it with a genuine effort.
Please do not limit the definition of therapeutic to serve your beliefs. If a placebo does bring mental relief, then it should be considered therapeutic. Wouldn’t you agree that praying is therapeutic?
And no, gender transition therapy is not a placebo or the beneficial results would not occur in almost all transsexuals. For all you know, trans women could be suffering from estrogen deficiency and providing the estrogen resolves the deficiency. Given the high rates of suicidality before hormone therapy and greatly reduced rates afterwards, there is clearly something going on which is not well understood.
No, that isn’t obviously flawed. If a person had a third arm growing out of her chest, and the third arm was fully functional, the person might still want it removed. The functionality of the individual apparatus cannot logically override the functionality of the whole individual. Body parts exist for the sake of the person, the person doesn’t exist to serve his body parts.
Sex correction surgery does satsify the patient in over 90% of cases. Your standard for a “working body” implies that reproduction is the only purpose for a Human.
I do not assume that transsexuality is a product of the mind. Given the case of CAIS individuals, it should be obvious that the body can be just as deceiving as the mind can be.
Cis women with functional uteri have received a neovagina and reproduced afterwards. So yes, a neovagina is suitable for reproductive purposes. The problem with trans women is we lack a uterus. However, it is possible, and desirable, that scientists will invent such a procedure that would allow for full reproductive capability in trans women.
The creation of a neovagina is not an amputation. Rather, it is the best attempt so far at correcting what is perceived by the patient to be a developmental error.
As for the case of BID, I have heard of at least one patient who successfully cut off his own legs with a circular saw. The damage was repaired in the emergency room at great cost. Given that his condition could have killed him, and that it was hugely expensive for the emergency repair, then wouldn’t it make sense according to the principle of harm reduction for a surgeon to do such a strange procedure in a sterile setting, rather than allow the person to die on his own? With that logic, it doesn’t matter if you agree with what appears to be insanity, it’s merely a matter of compassion and harm reduction. If you can find another cure for that patient, sure, that’s great. Until then, it makes sense on many levels, including in a moral level, to respect the patient’s desires.
Before you go on about how crazy it is for a person to remove a functional organ, please consider the following:
Matthew 5:
29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matthew 19:
12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
And:
Eusebius reported that Origen, following Matthew 19:12 literally, castrated himself.[11] This story was accepted during the Middle Ages and was cited by Abelard in his 12th century letters to Heloise.[12] Scholars within the past century have questioned this, surmising that this may have been a rumor circulated by his detractors.[13] The 1903 Catholic Encyclopedia does not report this.[14] However, renowned historian of late antiquity Peter Brown finds no reason to deny the truth of Eusebius’ claims. They are also accepted by Edward Gibbon in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon asserts that, at least initially, rather than generating censure, Origen’s self-castration was the focus of admiration, and dryly observes that ‘As it was his general practice to allegorise scripture, it seems unfortunate that, in this instance only, he should have adopted the literal sense.’
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origen