Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I'm clearly upset!

Hi Everyone,
This one may be short, we’ll see what happens. The other day I was reading someone’s blog (I’m really sorry I forgot where I originally saw this. If anyone knows, please give credit where credit is due.) and was guided to the following link: Intersex Infant surgical abuse. PLEASE watch the video. It is a sad and aggravating story about a woman that adopted a baby that turned out to be intersex. Not that big of a deal on the surface right. Well not quite so fast. The doctor wanted to do evasive surgery to “FIX” the child and the mother told the doctor not to do any surgery at all. Later, after the mother had taken the baby home, the doctor called them and told them that the babies single testicle may become cancerous and they should do a biopsy to make sure. The doctor CLEARLY went against the mothers wishes and removed the testicle trying to turn the child into a girl. UGGGGGGGG. PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO. I feel that it is very important that everyone watches the video and if you can please pass it on to others.
Why is it so important? Have you heard of Alice Dreger? To quote TSRoadmap , “Dreger is the J. Michael Bailey of the intersex community: someone whose trade is writing and speaking about controversies surrounding marginalized populations.” Read this and maybe you’ll understand. Anyways, its people like this that give make this world so difficult for the intersex and transgender communities. Ugggg. I also believe its attitudes like this "I know better than you" that give doctors like the one in the story above the attidude that they can do anything they want. What do you think?
I said I would keep it short, so I’ll say good night for now. Thanks for listening.
Michelle

4 comments:

pe1biv said...

This seems to be a horrible story and as this surgeon performed an unconsented surgical procedure, he should be struck of the medical register I would say.
Besides that, I would say the procedure performed accounts to grievous bodily harm.

i think by now there should have been enough evidence that "correcting" the sex of babies can go so absolutely very wrong; like boys changed to girls and raised as girls because some surgeon screwed up with a circumcision, and then running into the fact that you don't change the identity of that child by just cutting off that what was damaged!

All this practises are so totally wrong and should be banned, as ONLY the child should decide and NOBODY else.
We are not talking about a cleft palate or any other deformity that is a physical handycap, but something that involves the personality of the person.

You would think bad practice like this would have been proven as wrong and abandoned.

Michelle said...

Hi Angela,
I totally agree with you. You may have put it better than I did ( I was trying to keep it short, lol). There just seems to be so much wrong with the medical communities these days it makes me wonder why anyone would want to go to a doctor. When these doctors let there own personal beliefs get in the way of whats best for the patient, it is time to stand and confront the issue. To many intersex kids are damaged by there lack of concern or bias. This also applies to the trans community also because there seems to be STRONG bias in many areas of the medical field. I know there are good caring doctors out there, so please don't think that this is an attack on those doctors or medical staff, but to many times it is the opposite that is true. And like you said, it seems to be evidence out there to support both intersex and transgender people, but it seems to go ignored. Ugggg. Thanks again for the reply.
Hugs Michelle

Debbie K said...

Hi Michelle
I can totally understand why you were upset. It breaks my heart to see innocent people suffer at the hands of such dangerous selfish ignorance. Doctors should never let their personal beliefs get in the way of treating their patients with the respect & care they deserve.

I would also like to add a big thank you for all your kind words of support on my blog recently.

Take care
Love
Debbie

Michelle said...

Hi Debbie,
I totally agree with you. If we let the personal options of those doctors get in the way of doing what right for the patient then who's to say that same doctor (or any other doctor for that matter) would refuse service to someone because of there ethnic background. A few years back I was in the hospital for a heart condition. I didn't seem to have a major problem with the doctor, but one of the many EKG techs that did an EKG on me during my stay got very hostile (without saying a word) as she reached under my hospital gown to place the EKG probe on my chest. At that time I had been on HRT for about a year so there was diffent growth down there. She game in smiling and a little talkitive, but as soon as she noticed my breast, she totally changed. It was like seeing someone with rage in there face. She did take the EKG, but with a lot of attitude, it was not a pretty picture. I must have had at least 6 or so EKG's during my stay and it was only this one person that gave me any attitude. It's sad really, because I bet she would NEVER bother to try to understand were I'm coming from. I'm sure even if I would have tried to explain anything trans to her she would have balked and walked away. It's sad. She's sad.
BTW, I do enjoy reading your blog so I hope you keep it up.
Hugs Michelle