The list of things 15-year-olds are not legally allowed to do in
Oregon is long: Drive, smoke, donate blood, get a tattoo -- even go to a
tanning bed.
But, under a first-in-the-nation policy quietly enacted in January
that many parents are only now finding out about, 15-year-olds are now
allowed to get a sex-change operation. Many residents are stunned to
learn they can do it without parental notification -- and the state will
even pay for it through its Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan.[...]
Gender dysphoria is classified by the American Psychiatric
Association as a mental disorder in which a person identifies as the sex
opposite of his or her birth. It is rare, affecting one out of every
20,000 males and one out of every 50,000 females.
According to a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, "most children with gender
dysphoria will not remain gender dysphoric after puberty."
Dr. Paul McHugh, who led the Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Department and
still practices, said Oregon's policy amounts to child abuse. "We have a
very radical and even mutilating treatment being offered to children
without any evidence that the long-term outcome of this would be good,"
McHugh said.
Dr. Jack Drescher, a member of the APA who worked on the Sexual and
Gender Identity Disorders Work Group, says treatment for gender
dysphoria has received a lot more attention in recent years. He said
this year New York changed its policy to cover cross-sex hormone drugs
and sex-reassignment surgery for Medicaid recipients who are at least 18
years old. He thinks Oregon is offering the treatment too early. [...]
"We can help them if we begin to explore with them and their families what they're fearing about development, what they're fearing about being a young boy, a young adolescent appropriate to themselves."
(S)witch doctors.
ReplyDeleteRight after switching doctors switch states.
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