The stance of the Catholic Church on medical treatment of transsexuality

[Saya]

The Church doesn’t generally rule on particular medical or psychiatric conditions, but on the morality of various treatments.

It appears that it has yet to rule on the morality of various treatment methods of gender dysphoria. I’ll contact that organisation you mentioned. Although at this point I don’t expect to get a clear answer.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

I think you’re trying to get to a certain answer.
You’ve completely disregarded the psycho-socio-political storm surrounding this issue.

I really get the feeling you’re trying to manipulate the data to a certain outcome.

So.

What is your dog in this fight?

 

[27lw]

From the National Catholic Bioethics Center:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Resources in Catholic Bioethics — The National Catholic Bioethics Center

 

[goout]

0Scarlett_nidiyilii:

The Church doesn’t generally rule on particular medical or psychiatric conditions, but on the morality of various treatments.

It appears that it has yet to rule on the morality of various treatment methods of gender dysphoria. I’ll contact that organisation you mentioned. Although at this point I don’t expect to get a clear answer.

The point of Christian morality is not to delineate every forbidden action with situational specificity.

The foundation of morality is the good that it points to. You have to first delineate the good. Morality is then the “parameters of” human action and the evaluation of human action, in reference to that good. Morality is never about prohibitions for the sake of prohibitions. Morality leads to the fullness of life in the spirit (CCC).

Along this line, Christian morality is not a set of theological constructs that are pulled out of the mind of church-people. Morality depends on sane observation. If human beings cannot take in revelation as it is revealed, morality is nonsensical.

Some basic goods are as follows.
It is good to exist.
Human beings are made in the image of God.
Human sexual differentiation is the unique vehicle by which human existence happens.
Human beings are objectively male and female, so that human beings can be fruitful and multiply.
The human body is unique then, and it has deep meaning and significance that should be respected and revered. The human body and it’s characteristics are not to be treated with malice or indifference.

Question for you:
does the process of sexual surgery in an attempt to treat subjective conditions contribute to these goods above, or does it detract from them?
These are questions you have to answer in morally evaluating your actions.

Edit: while some of this is strikingly simple, the practical application of morality can be excruciating in everyday life. We all face challenges that are very difficult and we all fall short. Still, God is good and promises us good if we practice fidelity.

 

[neophyte]

It appears that it has yet to rule on the morality of various treatment methods of gender dysphoria.

But it has provided clear guidance on the principles by which moral judgements are to be made, and on the objective nature of human sexuality.

The fact that the answer to every possible individual case is not made spoon-feedable in advance doesn’t mean that these things aren’t clear. Quite the opposite.

It is objectively evil to mutilate a normal, healthy bodily system.
Culpability for an act is subjective to the state of mind of the actor.
The proper treatment for disordered mental states is to treat the disorder.

The mutilation of normal, healthy genitalia does nothing to address the sexual dysphoria, in fact it represents the abandonment of any attempt to do so. The so-called “professionals” who perform it are doing their clients a grave disservice.

 

[tuffsmurf]

Transpeople aren’t given any treatments for gender dysphoria except transitioning. So what should they do?

 

[Thorolfr]

Again,there are a few problems going on.

First, transgenderism is a very new condition, historically.

Second, it emerged at a time of increasing secularization and scientific ability to do human experimentation.

Why exactly is that a problem?

Many other psychological/psychiatric conditions are, from an historical perspective, relatively new in that they were only first described or categorized in the 19th or 20th centuries. The whole fields of psychology and psychiatry are relatively new.

 

[neophyte]

Transpeople aren’t given any treatments for gender dysphoria except transitioning. So what should they do?

Fight back against the so-called “professional” organizations that have made a political decision to abandon their proper care. Fight back against laws that unjustly criminalize the proper recognition and treatment of their condition. Firmly admonish counselors and doctors who offer mutilation as a treatment, and insist that they do the hard work of addressing the actual problem.

And most importantly, recognize themselves that their problem is that they are dysphoric, not that they have the wrong set of genitalia.

I understand that this is a deep-seated problem that is extremely difficult to treat. But that doesn’t mean that we just throw up our hands and do things that are harmful.

 

[Thorolfr]

The mutilation of normal, healthy genitalia does nothing to address the sexual dysphoria, in fact it represents the abandonment of any attempt to do so. The so-called “professionals” who perform it are doing their clients a grave disservice.

Many transgender people have said that hormones and surgery do alleviate their gender dysphoria even if they don’t totally cure it. So, how can you say they do nothing to address it?

A treatment need not totally cure a condition to be considered useful. If someone is suffering from physical pain from arthritis, for example, and takes pain medication to alleviate the pain without totally curing the arthritis, it’s still a useful treatment.

 

[tuffsmurf]

A person who is dealing with gender dysphoria and most likely deep depression and anxiety rarely have the strength to fight the laws or medical system. They fight to stay alive. So what should they do to get out of their misery?

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Why exactly is that a problem?

Because bad law is being written and bad medicine is being practiced based on a very nebulous concept.

Because we’ve been around this on other thread, Imma let you tell me what “transsexual/transgender” means.

 

[Thorolfr]

tuffsmurf:

Transpeople aren’t given any treatments for gender dysphoria except transitioning. So what should they do?

Fight back against the so-called “professional” organizations that have made a political decision to abandon their proper care. Fight back against laws that unjustly criminalize the proper recognition and treatment of their condition. Firmly admonish counselors and doctors who offer mutilation as a treatment, and insist that they do the hard work of addressing the actual problem.

And most importantly, recognize themselves that their problem is that they are dysphoric, not that they have the wrong set of genitalia.

I understand that this is a deep-seated problem that is extremely difficult to treat. But that doesn’t mean that we just throw up our hands and do things that are harmful.

No transgender person has to undergo surgery if they don’t want to and many choose not to do so. As in most medical treatments, doctors and patients work together.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

A person who is dealing with gender dysphoria and most likely deep depression and anxiety rarely have the strength to fight the laws or medical system. They fight to stay alive. So what should they do to get out of their misery?

You just answered your question.

Treat the anxiety and depression.

Which we are able to do without resorting to hormones and surgery.

See, gender dysphoria is a symptom. In the way a headache is a symptom. A headache could be caused by anything from eating ice cream to fast all the way to a fatal brain tumor.
If somebody came to you complaining of a headache, would you suggest high dose radiation?

In a similar vein, the symptom of gender dysphoria has a lot of causes (or triggers), from social contagion through history of abuse, through rejection from peers, maybe there’s even a biological component (from pollution in our food and water?) we don’t know.

But jumping to the conclusion that a person was born in the wrong body is pretty extreme, but sadly being done every day in private doctors offices and gender clinics and Planned Parenthood.

All for a very new emergent condition.

 

[Thorolfr]

Thorolfr:

Why exactly is that a problem?

Because bad law is being written and bad medicine is being practiced based on a very nebulous concept.

Because we’ve been around this on other thread, Imma let you tell me what “transsexual/transgender” means.

From a purely medical standpoint, isn’t it the gender dysphoria that is being treated and the symptoms of gender dysphoria are described by the American Psychiatric Association with guidelines for diagnosing it in the DSM 5:

Gender dysphoria involves a conflict between a person’s physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify. People with gender dysphoria may be very uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned, sometimes described as being uncomfortable with their body (particularly developments during puberty) or being uncomfortable with the expected roles of their assigned gender.

For more see here:

What Is Gender Dysphoria?.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

As I wrote above, Gender dysphoria is a symptom.

I’m not trying to troll you. I’m not trying to troll anybody.

But what I’m seeing is a tremendous amount of fuzzy thinking and I’m trying to get to a point of clarity.
It’s not your fault. The trans activists make many noises and have a habit of shifting goalposts and definitions and throwing a lot of emotionalistic appeals at their audience.

 

[neophyte]

Gender dysphoria involves a conflict between a person’s physical or assigned gender…

As I noted earler, everything else these so-called “professionals” say about this is called into question by the fact that they’ve made a political decision to base their asessment on the absurd fantasy that sex is something other than an objectively observable biological reality.

 

[Thorolfr]

As I wrote above, Gender dysphoria is a symptom.

Almost all psychiatric condition in the DSM 5 are described and categorized based on their symptoms. That’s because their causes are not completely known or understood. Take, for example, the case of schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia involves a range of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional symptoms, and it can be difficult to diagnose. There’s no simple physical or lab test for schizophrenia, and diagnosis involves the recognition of a constellation of symptoms negatively impacting social or occupational functioning.

The DSM 5 outlines the following criterion to make a diagnosis of schizophrenia:

1. Two or more of the following for at least a one-month (or longer) period of time, and at least one of them must be 1, 2, or 3: Delusions, Hallucinations, Disorganized speech, Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, Negative symptoms, such as diminished emotional expression

That’s just the beginning of all that must be considered in making a diagnosis. Sounds rather vague, doesn’t it?

 

[goout]

0Scarlett_nidiyilii:

As I wrote above, Gender dysphoria is a symptom.

Almost all psychiatric condition in the DSM 5 are described and categorized based on their symptoms. That’s because their causes are not completely known or understood. Take, for example, the case of schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia involves a range of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional symptoms, and it can be difficult to diagnose. There’s no simple physical or lab test for schizophrenia, and diagnosis involves the recognition of a constellation of symptoms negatively impacting social or occupational functioning.

The DSM 5 outlines the following criterion to make a diagnosis of schizophrenia:

1. Two or more of the following for at least a one-month (or longer) period of time, and at least one of them must be 1, 2, or 3: Delusions, Hallucinations, Disorganized speech, Grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, Negative symptoms, such as diminished emotional expression

That’s just the beginning of all that must be considered in making a diagnosis. Sounds rather vague, doesn’t it?

Schizophrenia is a different type of claim. It doesn’t look at the “non-schizophrenia gland” and make the claim it’s not there when it objectively is. For something like this, you must allow for subjectivity because it does not make an objective claim that contradicts reality.

Gender dysphoria involves claims that contradict objective facts about the human being.

 

[BlueMaxx]

Hi, could you please explain to me in detail what is the official stance of the Church on this topic? I know that it does not recognise the transsexual identity and considers people to be the gender/sex they were assigned at birth. However, despite reading various documents I couldn’t find any specific information on whether the hormonal therapy, various surgeries and social transition (living as the gender one identifies as, changing the legal name, sex marker etc.) are considered to be sins. When (official) Catholic sources talk about those they tend to be very vague and avoid taking a firm stance. Maybe I simply couldn’t find the right ones. Could you please help me out here? Thank you in advance.

If you have read all that and are still not clear it is only from you not wishing to accept that the Church is against it, God is against it…

The body is a temple, not to be mutilated in order to allow a person to fall even deeper into sin of the sexual nature.

My heart goes out to those who suffer from this particular burden of sin, but then again we all have our own cross to bear, it may not be sexual in nature, but another persons sin could be a myriad of other conditions that is contrary to what God has created us for.

None are so blind as those who refuse to see…

 

[neophyte]

If you have read all that and are still not clear it is only from you not wishing to accept that the Church is against it, God is against it…

That’s unnecessary and unhelpful. There’s a huge difference between knowing what a teaching is and understanding the reason why it is. There’s no reason to attack motives here.