Operating On Healthy Bodies Defies Surgical Ethics, And Trans People Are No Exception

[Kamaji]

Operating On Healthy Bodies Defies Surgical Ethics, And Trans People Are No Exception

Surgical removal of healthy organs is not a treatment for mental illness. Gender dysphoria should be treated with psychiatric therapy.

BY: MICHAEL EGNOR
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

As a pediatric neurosurgeon, I have followed the proliferation of surgical procedures for so-called “gender affirmation” with increasing dismay. That public schools now advocate such treatments to young children is particularly alarming. I say this based not on personal opinion but on 35 years of experience as a surgeon and instructor of surgeons.

I teach at a medical school and I am a residency director for neurosurgery in my institution. This means I am in charge of training young neurosurgeons. I emphasize to medical students and resident neurosurgeons that the first and most fundamental responsibility a surgeon has to his patients is to make an appropriate initial decision as to whether to operate and if surgery is in the patient’s best interest.

A well-performed operation is still malpractice (or even assault) if it is not done for valid medical reasons. Operating for marginal (or less) reasons is more common than most of the public realizes — after all, surgeons are paid (quite well) to operate, and they rightly take pride in operating with skill. To be paid handsomely for what you love to do is a privilege, a joy, and a very dangerous temptation. Not every patient who consults a surgeon really needs surgery — often, non-surgical treatment is more effective and less risky.

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So-Called ‘Gender Affirmation’ Surgery Violates Ethics
Surgery for so-called “gender affirmation” or ill-named “sex reassignment” grossly violates the ethical canons I have taught, that were taught to me, and that were taught to all surgeons until very recently. Such surgery entails radical and irreversible operations on normal healthy organs — mastectomy performed on normal breasts, amputation of the normal penis and scrotum (with construction of an opening to imitate a vagina), excision of the normal uterus and ovaries (with construction of a skin-tube to imitate a penis), among other procedures. These procedures are permanently disfiguring and render patients sterile.

What is the ethical basis for such mutilating surgery performed on perfectly healthy organs? It is a basic principle of medical ethics that surgeons are under no obligation to perform surgery on healthy body parts simply because a patient requests it. In fact, a surgeon is generally obligated to refuse to damage a patient’s normal organs or body parts just because the patient wants it done — e.g., it is unethical for a general surgeon to amputate a patient’s normal healthy arm or leg just because the patient requests it (this is a real issue), or remove a patient’s healthy eyes or a healthy part of a patient’s brain, simply because of a patient’s request. There are patients who suffer greatly from Body Integrity Image Disorder, but it is a psychiatric condition, not a surgical condition. Surgical mutilation is not a treatment for psychiatric illness.

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Source:  https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/23/operating-on-healthy-bodies-defies-surgical-ethics-and-trans-people-are-no-exception/

[Free Vulcan]

Pretty much the 'gender' equivalent of a lobotomy.