Last I checked, the brain is part of the body. If there’s a disconnect between it, and the body, we do not have a healthy individual. You can’t take the body sans brain and just consider its apparent health in isolation. Medicine treats, or at least is supposed to treat, persons.
As you pointed out, the body is healthy.
…”a belief of an individual“… I’m not sure there is any “belief” involved. There is a self-awareness that does not match their physical reality. The surgery (which must be very scary to contemplate) seems preferable to going on as they are. Think about that !
I’m not sure the recipients of lobotomies found them helpful, whereas a good proportion (but not all) have found the surgeries we’re talking about helpful.
The German bishops recently stated (as per a translation) that homosexuality is “normal”. On closer examination, I think they mean that in the sense of “naturally occurring”. That much may be true for transgender cases.
Valid points. But let’s be careful to not brand all those who experience these problems as “activists”. And let’s also remember that the “desire” for surgery in severe cases is not merely on the level of a woman seeking breast enhancement.
To not do what (at this time) cannot be done is not an error. It is a necessity! The treatment is the taking of what is judged by patient and medical advisors to be the best available option. Whether, for a given person, that is a good judgement, or a moral judgement, is open to debate.
Scientists are trying to figure it out! What makes you think otherwise? The brain truly is the last frontier of medicine.
Please identify within this thread where this has been said by anyone but yourself.
Yes, which is a great concern. I suspect we only get a small insight into each case.
No straw man. By refusing to treat, you are de facto saying “it’s better to let them commit suicide than treating them”. Because so far no other treatment has proven effective. If anti-depressants, supportive psychological treatments etc. were effective, I’d say by all means use those instead. Problem is, they aren’t.
Speaking of straw men: I call nonsense. Show me one documented example where a child has had genital surgery by a board-certified (US) or fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada) other than to correct a birth defect.
I also have to ask: are you in favour, or not, of parents electing to have their male children circumcised? Because that is the removal of a healthy part of the genitalia for absolutely no medical indication.
Produce it.
It seems really odd that what you would describe as life saving must wait for a legal age of consent.
Google “transgender suicide rate”. However, here is an anecdotal case:
(see Transgender and Catholic: A parent’s perspective | U.S. Catholic)
Ok point taken. Let me rephrase it to de-dramatize it: “if you deny treatment to the transgendered, you might as well be saying ‘too bad, so sad, here’s a length of rope’ because suicide would be the result in many cases”.
Straw man: where have I said it was necessary in every case? In any event with a child/teen, at least giving a correct diagnosis and providing supportive treatment and allowing them to live in their gender role gives them hope that there’s a pathway forward. Your suggestion would cut off all hope of treatment.
And now you have to find in this thread people advocating doing nothing.
You are the one here that has continually pushed this “treatment” as necessary. Going so far as to actually call it a “gender confirmation” instead of what it actually is.
What effective treatment to you advocate?
You and others, however, while not saying that nothing should be done, also don’t offer any specific alternative treatment that should be used. Instead, vague statements are said such as that doctors should “figure out and treat where the problem actually lies.” That, of course, has been attempted in the past without success and efforts in that direction are still being done. But since there isn’t any effective brain/psychological treatment available now, nothing has been said about what should be done for patients in the meantime.OraLabora:
And now you have to find in this thread people advocating doing nothing.
It may take some time for you to review all 300 plus responses, but go ahead. Find it.
It is time to dispose of these straw men you keep trying to fight with.
I’ll see if I can find it, but a study I read no too long ago keeps sticking out in my mind. The gist was that there really isn’t a large drop in the suicide rate pre- and post- transition. It was conducted in Sweden, iirc, which I found interesting as it’s known to be a rather liberal and “open/tolerant” country. If this is the case, then it seems there may be underlying issues beyond simply wanting to change sex/gender, in which case, pushing someone toward surgery may not be helping them at all either.