Frankenstein Medicine

What is “gender affirming care”, really? We all know the definition from the medical community - it’s the collection of cross-sex hormone treatments and surgeries prescribed for our children so they can live out what they think are their “true” lives, looking like the opposite sex. As euphemisms go, “gender affirming care” is a whopper. The drugs are dangerous and damaging and sterilize our children, and the surgeries are grisly. But how can anyone possibly oppose any treatment that ends with “affirming care”, or even “care”? If my son dressed up as Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame, would doctors prescribe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle affirming care? Would I be a bad father if I opposed such care?

“Gender affirming care” needs a better name, something that describes the treatments more accurately.

“Gender Plastic Surgery” is a possibility, especially since most gender doctors are just plastic surgeons with no ethics or diagnostic skills who are more than willing to take new customers. But most conventional plastic surgery procedures are strictly cosmetic with few real negative side effects.

“Gender affirming care” has sometimes been compared to lobotomies - surgeries on the brain that were used to treat a variety of mental health conditions. But lobotomies by definition were only on the brain, so a phrase with lobotomy doesn’t work.

Fiction provides an answer. In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein”, the classic story where Dr. Frankenstein creates a creature from collected body parts and then animates the creature through a mysterious process. Depending on which movie version of this story you see, the result was either a short-term success that later failed or was an immediate failure. Either way, Dr. Frankenstein clearly engaged in experiments that violated the laws of nature and were wildly unethical for any doctor with principles. Gender doctors fit that description perfectly, and “gender affirming care” is all about rearranging and modifying body parts in an otherwise healthy living body. “Gender affirming care” is Frankenstein medicine.

Imagine how different articles would sound with this new, more accurate term: “Stanford halts Frankenstein medicine for youths”...That sounds like a positive development. “Frankenstein Medicine Saves Lives”...Really? “Supreme Court OKs Tennessee Ban on Frankenstein Medicine”...That’s the right thing to happen.

I would like to ask my son’s doctor, “Are you a follower of Dr. Frankenstein? Dr. Frankenstein would certainly approve of what you’re trying to do with my son’s body parts.” Perhaps all gender doctors are somehow related to the fictional Dr. Frankenstein. They are undoubtedly related in spirit. Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is really a type of Dr. Frankenstein. Although Dr. Frankenstein is a fictional character, I wonder if he would become an honorary member of The American Academy of Pediatrics? Is the president of the AAP, Dr. Susan J. Kressly, also related to Dr. Frankenstein?

“Gender affirming care” is not care by any definition. It is Frankenstein medicine.