Moralists
There has always been
criticism of surgical sex
changes. Many moralists will
declare that only God can
decide a person's physical
gender ("It's not nice to fool
Mother Nature"). But as a
physician, Dr. Edgerton
endorses sex charge operations
on the grounds of the mental
anxiety he has seen in his
patients and the tortured lives
they have revealed to him. He
has listened to the stories of
suicide attempts and viewed
the remains of desperate
self-mutilations.
"There will always be a
tendency for people who don't
know anything about the
patients to be disapproving,"
he said. "The alternatives are
so bad, however, for the
patients."
Many of these patients, if
they're not helped, have
become suicidal. There's very
high incidence of suicide at an
early age if doctors reject
them," Dr. Edgerton said. "If
the patient is stable and
mature, and shows the ability
to meet the problems, when
the alternative is so absolutely
wretched, when there's
no other treatment offered; it's
not an easy choice but it's a
much better choice than
anything else."
***
Karen is one of the lucky
ones. She was able to connect
her body and her mind to end
her former suffering and
confusion. There are endless
possibilities stretching before
her: a new job, marriage;
maybe she'll adopt a child. Just
a normal life, as defined by
society, but the end of a long
search for fulfillment.
