Medical Peer Review?

[Auricman]

I was shocked by a Nova show on PBS this week. It

featured how, for about 30 years, the Medical

Establishment, led by Dr. John Money of Johns Hopkins,

believed that genetics did not play a role in gender

identity, only environment. They believed that if a

boy is raised as a girl, he can be successfully developed

as a woman (without being able to bear children). This

insane idea led to the sad life and eventual death of

a boy in Canada. The story can be found on the

internet if you search for "Dr. John Money". Anyone

who believes that the Medical Establishment would

never distort their data to promote their pet ideas

should read this article. And tragically, they got

away with it! No one was ever punished for the harm

they did to this family. Peer review appears to not have

been present.

Auricman

 

The following excerpt is from just one of the URLs that

tell the story.

---------------------------------------------------

When Dr. John Money recommended sex re-assignment

surgery for little Bruce Reimer, he became a champion

to feminists. But things didn't work out quite like he

planned.

 

The death certificate listed suicide as the official

cause of death. But the real cause of his demise was a

controversial gender experiment lead by one of the

most influential sex researchers of the 20th century.

 

Bruce Reimer was born in 1965 to a blue-collar family

in Winnipeg, Canada. Eight months later, he was

victimized by a botched circumcision, and baby Bruce

ended up without his sex organ.

 

The distraught family eventually contacted John Money,

a charismatic psychologist at Johns Hopkins University

in Baltimore. Dr. Money was a leading advocate of the

idea that sex-role identification is determined by

one?s environment, not one?s genetic make-up.

 

Money recommended sex re-assignment surgery, a dubious

procedure that had never been performed on a boy born

with normal genitalia. Bruce would be given a vagina,

his name would be changed to Brenda, and he would be

raised as a girl. It would be as easy as that.

 

So one month before his second birthday, little Bruce

was wheeled into the operating room as a boy, and came

out as a girl.

 

But back in Winnipeg, Brenda had other plans. When her

mom put a dress on her, little Brenda tried to tear it

off. Later she informed her startled parents she

wanted to become a garbage man when she grew up.

 

Enrolled in school, she was more competitive than her

female classmates. When girls got into fights, they

used their open hands. But Brenda used her fists. Then

Brenda?s girlfriends discovered that she urinated

standing up.

 

Dr. Money was apprised of all this, and more.

 

But when Money released his book, Man and Woman, Boy

and Girl in 1972, he portrayed Brenda?s sex-change

operation as a resounding success. The book reviewer

at the liberal New York Times wrote approvingly: ?if

you tell a boy he is a girl, and raise him as one, he

will want to do feminine things.?

 

Feminists were elated. They needed to prove that women

were just as determined as men to ascend the corporate

ladder. Women just needed to overcome the oppressive

conditioning of patriarchal society. And Money?s

research was just the ticket.

 

Meanwhile things in Winnipeg went from bad to worse.

When Brenda reached puberty and her voice deepened,

the folly of the charade could no longer be denied.

About to undergo her annual breast exam one day,

Brenda refused to disrobe. When asked by the doctor,

?Do you want to be a girl or not?,? she defiantly

answered ?No!?

 

Brenda?s parents knew the time had come to tell her

the truth.

 

Brenda immediately reverted to her male identity.

Choosing the name David, he underwent penile

reconstructive surgery. In 1990, David put the past

behind him when he and Jane Anne Fontane tied the

knot.

 

During all these years, John Money was the toast of

the town. He was hailed as the world?s leading expert

on sex reassignment. Media interviews, professional

awards, and NIH grants ? all were showered on him.

After all, he had proven that gender identity is a

product of nurture, not nature.

 

He just didn?t bother to tell anyone that Brenda was

no longer a she.

 

John Money?s world began to collapse in 1997 when a

journal article finally revealed the truth of his

ill-fated experiment. Money could only sputter, ?It?s

part of the anti-feminist movement.?

 

Money?s demise was sealed three years later by the

book, As Nature Made Him, which revealed the

psychologist to be a charlatan, tireless

self-promoter, and intellectual fraud.

 

Two years ago, David?s life began to unravel when his

brother unexpectedly died. Then he separated from his

wife. After 38 years of indignity and torment, David

Reimer took his own life on May 4.

 

The feminist dogma that gender is socially constructed

is still widespread in our society. Boys receive

constant messages that they should start acting more

like girls. The sad tale of David Reimer should make

us pause to reconsider our mass experiment in gender

re-education.

[walletss]

" Anyone

who believes that the Medical Establishment would

never distort their data to promote their pet ideas

should read this article. And tragically, they got

away with it!"

 

I believe that The Medical Establishment will always strive to protect their reputations and business income . Distortion of data is only one aspect. What if the establishment fails to cure chronic disease?

Many would rather let a patient die before bothering to suggest alternative medicine as a last resort.

[Auricman]

I believe that The Medical Establishment will always strive to protect their reputations and business income . Distortion of data is only one aspect.

Walletts,

Sure, other businesses will lie and distort their data. When they do, it may cost us a few bucks. But when the Medical Establishment lies and distorts data, it may cost us our lives.

Auricman

[dickonline]

Stay healthy or else:

 

 

MEDICAL error is the third most frequent cause of death in Britain after cancer and heart disease, killing up to 40,000 people a year - about four times more than die from all other types of accident. Provisional research figures on hospital mistakes show that a further 280,000 people suffer from non-fatal drug-prescribing errors, overdoses and infections. The victims spend an average of six extra days recovering in hospital, at an annual cost of £730m in England alone.

 

Official Australian government reports reveal that preventable

medical error in hospitals is responsible for 11% of all deaths in Australia.(1, 2), which is about 1 of every 9 deaths.

If deaths from properly researched, properly registered, properly prescribed and properly used drugs were added along with preventable deaths due to private practice it comes to a staggering 19%, which is almost 1 of every 5 deaths.

 

Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, Causing 250,000 Deaths Every Year

 

Here are some other numbers to ponder:

Number of physicians in the US = 700,000

Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year = 120,000

Accidental deaths per physician = 0.171

Number of gun owners in the US = 80,000,000

Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups) = 1,500

Accidental deaths per gun owner = 0.0000188

Therefore, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

[lembeh]

 

As they say, the devil is in the details. The crux of the matter is that the boy had, as a result of his botched circumcision, had his penis burnt away *completely*. There was no possibility of reconstruction or repair at the time.

 

At the time it was believed that the boy would have a better life, without a penis, being bought up as a girl. Probably wrong in retrospect.

 

But you note that he (no longer a boy) committed suicide after having reverted to being a man after reconstructive surgery, and having lived so for nearly 20 years.

 

There is *nothing* in this to say that he would not have committed suicide as a result of having had to live as a man without a functioning penis, so best, perhaps not to read toooo much into it.

-j-

[MaiLuk]

>>Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, Causing 250,000 Deaths Every Year <<

 

I always wonder about "causation".

 

If a doctor botches a simple tonsilitis (they still do those?) and the patient dies, then it could be said that his negligence caused the death. But if someone has cancer and the doctor fails to diagnose it, does that mean the persons untimely death gets included in that stat? Cancer caused the patient to die, not the doctor. The doctor may have failed to live up to a certain standard of care, but did not cause the death.

 

Those stats seem like something that would be generated by the trial lawyers association as part of their opposition to jury verdict limits.

[MaiLuk]

Quote from the article: >>The feminist dogma that gender is socially constructed is still widespread in our society. Boys receive constant messages that they should start acting more

like girls. The sad tale of David Reimer should make us pause to reconsider our mass experiment in gender re-education. <<

 

I wasn't aware of a gender re-education. Is this true? What would the re-education consist of? Teaching boys to crochet and girls to bring home the bacon?

 

Gender identity goes way beyond what was presented in the article, seems like it was written just to bash feminism. If the article author wants to take apart feminism there are probably better examples to be made than the sad case of a guy whose penis was damaged.

[tomc12]

I think this is "Monday morning quarterbacking". 40 years ago the problem of how to treat intersex and ambiguous genitalia was in the very early stages of development, both medically and surgically. Dr. John Money did some good work in psycho-endocrinology, but some of his theories were proven wrong at a later date when better tools were available for hormone and receptor analysis.

As far as the importance of nature vs nuture in determining sexual orientation, anyone care to give their theories about katoeys.

Medical error encompasses all medical errors, whether by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, surgical techs, etc. It also includes equipment malfunctions. So medical error does not equal doctor error.

[Guest]

I was shocked a few years ago when there was a lot of discussion of the Tuskegee "experiment" in which doctors, apparently up to the Surgeon General of the US at one point, denied treatment to a group of black men suffering from syphilis from 1932 until 1972 just to study the effects of untreated syphilis. However, the most shocking aspect of the case to me was that, although at least some of the doctors involved were still living, there was no discussion of prosecutiion at all! No reasons given, just no mention of the possibility of bringing them to justice. The notion that "our" doctors are good unlike say, the Nazi doctors, is just too deeply ingrained in people for their own good.

 

Khun Pad Thai

[Auricman]

there was no discussion of prosecutiion at all! No reasons given, just no mention of the possibility of bringing them to justice.

Yes, this is another good example of the arrogance and lack of accountability of the medical profession. I normally do not side with trial lawyers, but these 2 examples do show some need for compensation for the wrong doing of doctors.