Before We Congratulate Ourselves On Our Tolerance and Maturity

The disturbing part of this story is the reactions of so-called medical professionals to this couple’s situation and decision.

Now there are two ways to look at this. The one that might make more sense (though certainly no more palatable) is that these physicians et al are concerned with Insurance issues. What’s covered here? How does malpractice potentially enter into it? And while these folks are relatively well off and can carry their own expenses, what kind of precedent might be set here that will spread to the uninsured or Medicaid?

Unpleasant, but it would give a dimension to it that we could wrap our disgust around.

The other way to see it is as an example that, much as we might as a society wish to see ourselves as maturing, getting beyond such primordial reactions (namely—“Ugh! You different! You die!”), it turns out not to be true. That what we have is a facade and as long as no one really tests it, we can be what we think we are, at least to ourselves.

My reaction to what this couple is doing was initially (and continues to be) “Wow, cool!”

But I may well be in the minority.

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Mark Tiedemann

Mark is a writer and musician living in the St. Louis area. He hit puberty at the peak of the Sixties and came of age just as it was all coming to a close with the end of the Vietnam War. He was annoyed when bellbottoms went out of style, but he got over it.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    I'm happy for the pregnant dude. Truly.

    But it makes me wonder whether the FCC would get bent out of shape if "he" exposed one of his nipples at a Superbowl.

  2. Avatar of grumpypilgrim
    grumpypilgrim

    "But it makes me wonder whether the FCC would get bent out of shape if “he” exposed one of his nipples at a Superbowl."

    Indeed, there might also be the matter of breast feeding….

  3. Avatar of Erika Price
    Erika Price

    Also of note (as mentioned in one of my favorite podcasts, the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe): the silly reporting this piece of "news" has met. Many news sources have referred to this situation as "Pregnant Man Confuses Medical Community", or some variation like that. This amounts to dishonest, or at least sloppy, journalism. It comes as no surprise to the medical community that a FtM* transsexual who still has a working vagina and uterus, who stops taking his hormones can become pregnant. These doctors did react boorishly, it sounds like, but by no means did something inexplicable happen- like a biological male getting pregnant.

    *Female-to-male

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