What the headline should really read is “hospital opens debate on maiming oneself.”
This is no different from the “trans-abled” movement. Except now they want the air of respectability of the medical profession.
It also cracks me up that the Daily Evergreen’s response to a medical doctor comes from a mediocre English Professor. Such is academia.
Hospital opens debate on gender surgery
Pullman Regional Hospital (PRH) has sparked debate over providing gender reassignment surgery after announcing Friday that it would accept public comment on the procedure. Following initial reports, many community members have expressed concern regarding why the hospital is asking public opinion on medical practices. Residents have voiced both support and opposition for providing these services locally.
More from a medical doctor at PRH:
Hospital physician Dr. Rodney Story stated in an email that he objects to gender reassignment surgery on the ethical constraint of “first do no harm,” which requires surgery to be primarily corrective and curative. He stated that gender reassignment does not meet these standards because the procedure involves removing “healthy, normally-developed genitals.”
Story stated that he urged for consideration of a delay for an open discussion of the controversial procedure during a hospital all-staff meeting on May 27.
He believes that because PRH is supported by the taxpayers of Whitman County hospital district, “PRH is beholden to the will of its citizens for the quality and scope of care which it provides,” he stated in an email.
While Story stated he has cared for many patients who consider themselves transgender, he believes surgery may give the patient “a short-term sense of relief, but ultimately surgery to correct a dysmorphic disorder is offering false hope.”
Here’s the objection:
WSU assistant professor [of English] Elizabeth Siler, who is running for director of the 4th district of Pullman School District, said she believes offering the procedure addresses the needs of the transgender community in Pullman.
Siler wrote a letter to the hospital in which she stated she is surprised by the hospital’s request for input, believing there are only three factors that should determine whether the hospital should provide these services: accessibility to necessary equipment, a doctor with necessary training and a fully-consenting adult patient.
“An issue has been made that didn’t need to be made. [The decision to offer the procedure] could have been made at a board meeting,” Siler said. “This is a private matter.”