April 26, 2024

Are 9-year-olds ready for sex reassignment?

Michael Cook

Yes, says Harvard professor

Boys and girls as young as 9 are being helped to change their gender at the
prestigious Boston Children’s Hospital. A clinic for children who feel that they are
trapped in a body with the wrong sex is being run by Dr Norman Spack, who is
also an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. In an
interview in the Boston Globe earlier
this year, Dr Spack explained that he gives drugs to pre-pubescent children to
delay the onset of sexual maturity for a few years. This allows them to make up
their minds.

“Stopping
puberty is, in itself, a diagnostic test,” he says. “If a girl starts to
experience breast budding and feels like cutting herself, then she’s probably
transgendered. If she feels immediate relief on the [puberty-blocking] drugs, that confirms the diagnosis.”

Allowing
children to change their sex makes them happier, says Dr Spack. And after they
have hormonal treatment, they are less likely to commit suicide.

Unfortunately,
a likely outcome of treatment with drugs and hormones is infertility. “You have
to explain to the patients that if they go ahead, they may not be able to have
children. When you’re talking to a 12-year-old, that’s a
heavy-duty conversation. Does a kid that age really think about
fertility? But if you don’t start treatment, they will always have trouble
fitting in. And my patients always remind me that what’s most important to them
is their identity.”

Dr Spack’s
approach has been criticised by other doctors. “Treating these children with
hormones does considerable harm and it compounds their confusion,” says Dr Paul
McHugh, of Johns Hopkins University. “Trying to delay puberty or change
someone’s gender is a rejection of the lawfulness of nature.” ~ Boston Globe, March 30; Fox News, May 19

 

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