An Australian family court Justice has decided to allow a 10 year-old child to begin steps towards a sex-change. The boy’s parents happen to be medical experts and psychiatrists and deemed it necessary to allow their prepubescent child to make life altering decisions and petitioned the court to grant their child’s request.
Family Court Justice Linda Dessau ordered that Jamie be allowed to start drug therapy to stop male puberty and that the court reconvene when she turned 16 to consider approving the second stage of taking female hormones to feminize the body
What troubles me is supposed trained medical and psychiatric professionals could ever come to the conclusion this is a good idea for such a young child. Apparently they sought a second opinion, which inevitably confirmed their decision when: “the family had started treating Jamie as a female in 2008 after her non-identical twin brother accepted her condition and announced: ‘I have a sister'”.
I have trouble accepting sex-change operations as medically valid to begin with. The desire for a sex-change, I believe, should be treated psychiatrically, not surgically. If you believe the only way to “feel normal” is to mutilate your body physically, it is a mental problem you have, not a physical one.
The problem is Jamie’s parents fostered his femininity. It seems that as soon as the boy showed the slightest hint of feminine tendencies, it was embraced and encouraged. The boy has been treated as a girl for 2 years, since he was 8 years-old. Sure “At the moment Jamie can live comfortably as a girl, is socially confident and suffers no teasing or social isolation”, but what happens if someday Jamie turns out to want to be a man. Too late. His parents allowed an 8 year-old to make a dramatic life decision.
The mother is concerned that without the hormonal drugs, her son’s “voice would break and an Adam’s apple and facial hair would grow”. But what if the testosterone which would begin to flow at puberty causes the boy to start feeling like…a boy? This will be artificially suppressed, and eventually made permanent by a surgery and continued use of hormone treatments. Note that through out the news article, the boy is referred to as “she”. Just like at his home, the idea that he is female is being heavily embraced and fostered, there is no turning back for Jamie. Think of the pressure he would feel to continue the farce in order to not let down his mother should he change his mind after all she has put into the effort of creating the daughter she always wanted. The irresponsibility of these parents is too great for words, their medical licences ought to be revoked.
Sifting Reality 
Whoa, that is creepy. Shame on the parents and the courts.
“Sure “At the moment Jamie can live comfortably as a girl, is socially confident and suffers no teasing or social isolation”, but what happens if someday Jamie turns out to want to be a man. Too late. His parents allowed an 8 year-old to make a dramatic life decision.”
A lot of transexuals knew from a young age they felt like the opposite sex and wish they could have gone back and started the transition at a younger age. Do you really think the fact that the transition is most successfully made the younger one is has no impact on why they believe it is best to start the transition now? Do you really think any parent wants this for their child or would push a sex change upon their child for their own personal agenda? You have brought forward no evidence that the child herself isn’t the one pushing for this, and as medical professional, who have gotten a second opinion, AND as the child’s parents who know her a lot better then you do, the only reason I see for you opposing this family’s decision is because you are personally opposed to it and can not understand it.
“Think of the pressure he would feel to continue the farce in order to not let down his mother should he change his mind after all she has put into the effort of creating the daughter she always wanted. The irresponsibility of these parents is too great for words, their medical licences ought to be revoked.”
You assume their is pressure, but again you bring forward no evidence that this isn’t truly driven but what the child and her family feels is in her best interest. Also, you would not oppose at all pushing the child the other way. You are biologically male, you must start acting masculine and you will learn to feel like a man! There are plenty of parents who do just this and end up isolating their children during a crucial life period where what the need is love and support. The majority of transexuals felt just this pressure in their households growing up, and you know what? Still get the sex change. And are comfortable with their decision, and the mental health issues the end up dealing with for the rest of their lives are not from the sex change, but are a symptom of the rejection they feel from their family and society as a whole.
And you have absolutely no qualifications or authority to be saying their medical licenses should be revoked, beyond having your own personal opinion on how to best to raise a child.
Lastly, Doctors make decisions about the sex of children. About 1 in every 1,500 births are intersex children and together parents and doctor decide how best to treat the the child. Just like intersexuals aren’t common, transexual children aren’t common either, so I see no reason why the decision of how to best care for the transexual child shouldn’t also be left up to the family and doctors. Biology isn’t destiny.
I absolutely believe parents like that would allow their political agenda to guide their decision like this. From the moment the boy smiles at something pink, they jump on it telling him its ok if he feels like a girl, he can be anything he wants. That’s the mentality, its a hyper-anti-homophobia.
And its even worse if the 10 year-old has a say. HE’S 10!! You don’t allow children that kind of directional influence in their life. Only someone with a broken sense of reality would allow such a thing.
Like I said, if someone thinks the only way to feel normal is to mutilate their body, they need psychiatric help, not surgery.
1.) You’re vision of the liberal thinking is as delusional as if I was to say that all anti-homosexual parents are willing to beat their child to near death if it “saves” them from themselves and keeps them from acting like a homosexual. No one is trying to shove a sex-change down their child’s throat, and when you smear family’s who have to struggle over deciding what’s best for their child, you are being unfair to how complex the situation really is.
2.) Oh, I forgot children have absolutely NO agency in their lives and are completely moldable to whatever the parents want them to be. We shouldn’t allow people any input into their own lives what so ever till their 18 because everything is fixable up to that point via better parenting. These parents are making the wrong choice because they aren’t doing what ever they can to force the child to be something she isn’t. The emotional state of this child really means nothing to you, does it?
3.) I love how you assume it is the mind with the problem and not the body itself. And who defines what mutilation is? Mutilation: an act or physical injury that degrades the appearance or function of any living body. If you are happier with your body after surgery, your body isn’t being degraded. A person who is deformed do to disease or injury want’s cosmetic surgery so they can feel like they fit in, so they feel “normal”. Would you tell them to seek psychiatric help? No, because their goal is to change their appearance to one closer to what you consider “normal”.
Lastly, to get a sex change you do have to see a psychiatrist it’s part of the legal process one is required to go through. So even the psychiatrist believes this is the correct decision. What you’re upset about is the child isn’t being sent to someone who shares your political agenda, whose sole goal is to convince the child to change their mind. But why am I surprised, that’s just the manner you feel is best to approach anyone who doesn’t share your ideology, require them to be blasted with conservative thinking no matter what impact it might have on them emotionally. It’s better for someone to be emotionally manipulated and scared, then for them consider making a choice about their own bodies.
“But what if the testosterone which would begin to flow at puberty causes the boy to start feeling like…a boy?” And what if it doesn’t? Now Jamie would be stuck with a body that’s even more masculine, and will be harder for her to change to how she want’s it to be, how she feels comfortable with it looking. You act like feeling like a girl is a normal part of male development. What signs do we have that Jamie is suddenly going to completely have an identity flip once she reaches puberty? Besides it being what you would want her to have or expect that is “normal” for her to do. And even you keep giving mixed messages. Is Jamie’s transsexualism a medical problem because her body isn’t dosing her with correct hormones or a a psychological one because someone in her life let her wear pink and play dress up too young in her life.
If you were suddenly given estrogen, would you start believing you were female? Would you start feeling female? No, because one’s identity is only partially affected by their hormones. Having estrogen doesn’t suddenly draw one to the color pink. And I’m going to make a big assumption here, but my guess is that many of the same factors you believe drive people to being transexual are also ones that cause a person “to become homosexual” so answer this one. Why do both transexuals and homosexuals exist? In your mind is it some kind of hormonal spectrum ranging from stereotypical straight macho man to transexuals? Are hormones and “pro-homosexual” teachings really what you believe causes a person to form their identity? Do you really believe with different hormonal impact and “less masculine” influences you too may have ended up with a homosexual identity?