LogFAQs > #886045299

Callixtus posted...

So could you please tell me the reason why you support sex reassignment surgery and not amputation for apotemnophiliacs, despite both operations resulting in the destruction or degrading of functional body parts?

Well for starters, there already are procedures that result in destruction or degradation of functional body parts. It's called a vasectomy or a tubal ligation and they're perfectly valid forms of birth control.

But the real reason for the difference in your example is that no surgeon is going to perform the operation for the apotemnophiliac. First off, someone with that would be extremely rare compared to a transgendered individual. So someone coming into a surgeon's office asking for an elective amputation is going to be laughed out. That's just inviting over liability. Given it's incredible rarity, there isn't any literature supporting amputation as a valid treatment modality with good outcomes. The same can't be said for HRT or SRS, because there is some evidence to suggest it helps (albeit weak evidence).

So like I get your desire to grasp for consistency here, but your incredibly esoteric zebra of an example doesn't really have a lot of real world applicability. Apotemnophilia is just not something clinicians encounter, but transgenderism is. And not addressing that component, even just psychosocially, is asking for poorer outcomes and less than standard of care for transgendered patients.
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"He has two neurons held together by a spirochete."