08AR13-12

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Apologia Report 13:12

March 28, 2008

Subject: The transgender tragedy (and its defenders)

In this issue:

BIOETHICS - why public opposition to animal-human hybrid experimentation continues to fade in the UK

GENDER - the youngest transsexual?

+ responding to the strategies of the transsexual lobby

+ the transgender transition in higher education

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BIOETHICS

"Soft Cell: How Scientists Are Easing Away Opposition to Animal-Human Hybrids" by Michael Cook -- begins by asking, "Has experimenting on human life lost its power to disgust?" This was Cook's response to the news four years ago that "a US-trained scientist at Shanghai Second Medical University, Dr. Huizhen Sheng, had created hybrid human-rabbit embryos." Cook is monitoring the dissipation of the "yuck factor" regarding this and how public reaction is being influenced.

He reports that "now British scientists have been given a green light to follow in Dr. Sheng's footsteps and create cybrids." (The words hybrid and cybrid are used interchangeably by Cook, but the latter has to do with using animal eggs vs. human eggs to create embyros.) "I suspect that neither the HFEA [BritainÕs Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority] nor stem-cell scientists believe that 'human dignity' is a meaningful concept. 'Moral rejections tend to rely upon a species distinction between animals and humans, but it is unclear whether such a distinction can be maintained,' said the HFEA. ...

"No British scientists have sought permission to reproduce [the fictional] Dr. Moreau's experiments, thank goodness. But when they do, the HFEA is sure to announce that the public is 'at ease' with them. ...

"As Salvo was going to press, the UK government caved in completely and yielded to pressure from the stem-cell lobby. The draft bill will be amended to include provisions for all types of inter-species embryos, ranging from 'true' hybrids (embryos created by the mixing of human and animal gametes), 'cytoplasmic hybrid' embryos (embryos created by the insertion of a human nucleus into an enucleated animal egg); human transgenic embryos (human embryos modified by the addition of animal DNA); and human-animal chimera embryos (embryos created by the addition of animal cells to a human embryo)." Salvo, Wtr '08, pp24-26. <http://www.salvomag.com/new/articles/salvo4/4cook.php>

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GENDER

Among the tragedies of youth in the 21st century are an increasing number of challenges thrust upon children at ever younger ages. "Raising a Little Girl Who Was Born a Boy" is the tag-line on the cover of Denver's 5280 magazine for March 2008. Written by 5280's executive editor, Maximillian Potter, this is "the story of a local family raising a little girl born in the wrong body." Readers are presented with the best possible side of a wrenching ordeal - an upbeat, positive spin on what is a nightmare for the majority of kids who live with this condition in confusion and uncertainty.

The actual piece is titled "Second Nature" (p100-105, 114-121). It is about Luc who became Lucia at age eight while in the second grade. At Lucia's school, the district's "director of diversity and equity" emphasizes that "Gender identity refers to one's understanding, outlook and feelings about whether one is female or male, regardless of one's biological sex."

On the first page of the essay, Potter presents the question most find themselves wondering about the parents: "Are you sure you're not pushing this child?" The answer is that this child is unique because this child is certain. Also unique is the parents' strong support of the child's desire.

The seriousness of the decision comes through clearly. Potter notes that "the consensus within the medical community is that the suicide rate for transgender American youths is at least double the national average."

Child clinical psychologist Deborah Holden "has seen more than 100 kids with gender issues, and in her clinical opinion, only eight to 10 of those children had 'true gender confusion.' Only two of those select cases were gender dysphoric to the point where she discussed with the parents the possibility of allowing the child to begin transitioning. Lucia 'is the most clear' case of gender dysphoria Holden's seen." Here, gender dysphoria is described as the experience when "Transgender people ... feel like they are trapped in someone else's skin - an inescapable feeling. ...

"Some experts, like Dr. Kenneth Zucker, believe that most transgender children are going through a 'phase.' Zucker is psychologist-in-chief and head of the Gender Identity Service at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, and during the past 30 years he has treated about 550 preadolescent gender-variant children. Based on his studies, Zucker says, 80 percent to 85 percent grow out of the phase, and only 15 percent to 20 percent continue to be distressed about their gender and may ultimately change their sex. ...

"[A]s Zucker sees it, more often than not a preadolescent's mood disorder causes the gender dysphoria - not the other way around...." Other opinions are also discussed.

Potter notes the minefield that lies ahead. "There are medical treatments that 'block' the hormonal and physical changes of puberty; there is also hormone-replacement therapy (HRT), which triggers opposite-sex puberty. The blocking treatment is the more established option. This type of drug therapy is reversible; if a child-patient stops the treatment, puberty begins or resumes. HRT is more controversial because it has permanent effects. Once opposite-sex puberty is triggered, it cannot be undone. Neither form of treatment is FDA-approved, and there have been few tests to gauge their long-term efficacy and safety."

Near the end of the lengthy story, Potter mentions just one of the unexpected and jarring adjustments that this family is making. Lucia's mother, Judy, "has begun talking with Lucia's pediatrician, Dr. Richker, about facilitating some form of hormone therapy. The Martins know it will be expensive. Dr. Spack, of Children's Hospital Boston, estimates the average cost of therapy for a child Lucia's age is approximately $1,000 per month. But, again, the choice is really no choice at all for the Martins. Lucia is their little girl. 'Some families save for college tuition,' Judy says. 'We'll invest in this and save for the surgery.'"

<http://www.5280.com/issues/2008/0803/feature.php?pageID=1017>

"The Transsexual Dilemma: A Dialogue about the Ethics of Sex Change" by Joe Dallas -- the contents page summary reads: "Following the course blazed by their gay predecessors, the advocates of transsexualism are advancing their cause through the American Psychiatric Association, the educational and legal systems, and the media. The predictable outcome is increased acceptance of transsexualism and intense pressure on those who dissent, which underscores the need for Christians to articulate biblical responses to pro-transsexual arguments." The article's synopsis (p35) notes the reasoning: "The innateness argument states that transsexualism is inborn and unchangeable, and therefore God ordained. ... The irrelevance argument states that changing sexes is acceptable because one's sex is only secondary, even to God. ... The inevitability argument states that the only viable option for transsexuals in resolving the conflict between their bodies and their feelings is to default to their feelings and proceed with sex reassignment surgery." Christian Research Journal, 31:1 - 2008, pp32-40.

"When Girls Will Be Boys" by Alissa Quart -- explains the predicament caused by "a growing population of transgender students at the nation's colleges and universities. While still a rarity, young women who become men in college, also known as transmen or transmales, have grown in number over the last 10 years. According to Brett-Genny Janiczek Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who has studied trans students on college campuses, adults who wished to transition historically did so in middle age. Today a larger percentage of transitions occur in adolescence or young adulthood. The National Center for Transgender Equality estimates that between a quarter of a percent and 1 percent of the U.S. population is transgender - up to three million Americans - though other estimates are lower and precise figures are difficult to come by. Still, the growing number of young people who transition when they are teenagers or very young adults has placed a new pressure on colleges, especially women's colleges, to accommodate them." Lengthy. NY Times Magazine, 16 Mar '08, n.p. <http://tinyurl.com/344kez>

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