Gender setters- when doctors play God
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/gender-setters-when-doctors-play-god-20090530-br14.html (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/gender-setters-when-doctors-play-god-20090530-br14.html)
Jill Stark
5/31/09
Two former patients of Australia's controversial sex-change clinic say misdiagnosis and wrongful surgery destroyed their lives. Jill Stark reports.
HE WILL never forget the noise. Lying on the hospital trolley being pushed towards the operating theatre he heard a primal wail. He looked back to see his younger sister sobbing, traumatised by what he was about to do.
Andrew*, born male, was minutes away from an operation that would make him a woman. Psychiatrists said he had a female brain in a male body. Gender reassignment surgery was the only way to ease the mental torment.
But as he headed to surgery he was struck by an unshakeable thought: "It's not right." He remembers telling the surgeon: "I think I'm doing the wrong thing, I think we've got to stop it."
Wow, that's too bad. :(
I read the article, and I feel their pain and frustrations. This is not a road for the faint hearted. And the doctors did not listen to their patents when they said "No. I have changed my mind." Yes a a competent psychiatrist would detect the truth behind the reasoning.
Does it happen? Yes. And so does removing the wrong leg, which also happens. Are they to blame for their unhappiness? No. They were not diagnosed properly. That was the systems fault.
But for me, the only thing stopping me now is the funds. I am mentally perpared for the change at being the real me.
The doctors probably should have stopped the operation when he voiced his doubts.
On the other hand, he had been proclaiming he was transsexual for a long time. So don't blame it all on the doctors, he had a big hand in it too.
There is such a thing as being responsible for yourself. This guy tries to shove all the blame onto others.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/sexchange-clinic-got-it-wrong-20090531-br8w.html?page=-1 (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/sexchange-clinic-got-it-wrong-20090531-br8w.html?page=-1)