Here is another story of a "doctor" that used an innocent family to conduct his experiments. You might remember my previous post about the crazy doctor that performed the pre frontal lobotomies. You probably also remember how upset I was about it. Well as you have probably read the title of my blog you might understand why I am upset at this "doctor". We all have heard the debate of nature vs nurture and probably have our own belief about it. In this case psychologist, John Money, went to far to prove that nurture is the source of who we are. David Reimer was his victim. He was born an identical (non-intersex) twin boy in 1965. At the age of 8 months, David and his brother each had a minor medical problem involving his penis, and a doctor decided to treat the problem with circumcision. The doctor botched the circumcision on David, using an inappropriate method and accidentally burning off virtually all of David’s penis. At the advice of psychologist John Money at Johns Hopkins University, David’s parents agreed to have him “sex reassigned” and made into a girl via surgical, hormonal, and psychological treatments.
For many years, John Money claimed that David (known in the interim as “Brenda”) turned out to be a “real” girl with a female gender identity. Money used this case to bolster his approach to intersex —the approach that is still used throughout much of the U.S. and developed world—one that relies on the assumption that gender identity is all about nurture (upbringing), not nature (inborn traits), and that gender assignment is the key to treating all children with atypical sex anatomies.
As it turns out, Money was lying. He knew Brenda was never happy as a girl, and he knew that as soon as David found out what happened to him, David reassumed the social identity of a boy. By age 14 she insisted that she wanted to live as a boy and that is when his father told her the horrible story. David decided to marry an older woman with children and adopted them as his own. However the damage was already done to him. David tried living a normal life after this but it was impossible because he ended his life a few years later.
We see history repeating itself in science. In the name of science doctors commit unethical acts that ruin and sometimes end an individuals life.
I have included a 3 minute clip on the documentary of David Reimer. Feel free to see the full documentary on youtube.
Short 3 minute clip
Part 1 10 minutes
If you are interested in more clips please watch them on youtube
http://www.isna.org/faq/reimer
I found your post about David Reimer very sad. His story is a tragic one. However, it is amazing how much more powerful nature is over nurture in terms of sex and gender identity -- and this case is a clear example of how inborn biological traits determine what your gender identity will be. I understand how this doctor could make you angry. He botched the circumcision and instead of facing the problem which he himself caused, he merely suggested, 'well...maybe he should just be a girl now' and then the parents and David Reimer himself had to live with the consequences.
ReplyDeleteThis post is very sad. I do not believe that people outside of the family should have a say on what a child should or should not be. I think maybe the child should have been given the opportunity to make the decision himself, but then again that would confuse a child at the young age that David was. The doctor botching the whole operation is horrible! And I cannot believe that the doctor was not punished in some kind of way. Good post!
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad to hear of doctors performing their experiments on innocent children. All because they want to do it for fame, money, power, ect. The damage done to this innocent boy is unacceptable, especially when it was done from a person who is supposed to help. Great blog!
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