How far should medicine go to cure taboo loves and desires
A somewhat interesting discussion here of a complicated topic.
Update: actually, I am somewhat more interested in what potential there is for drug treatment for those who think they are transgender. I see there is some guy who enthusiastically runs a site listing many studies indicating that transgender operations are frequently not the source of happiness that the patient desires. There is also a counter post from someone at Huffington Post claiming this is all rubbish. Links to both can be found via here.
As we seem to have reached some sort of "peak transgender" in American (and therefore Western) culture, I think it is a genuinely interesting topic to see how much of it is tied up with identity politics, a current cultural understanding of "self", and perhaps even a medical industry's self interest.
But it's a weird topic. I haven't yet watched the 4 Corners show that dealt with transgender children in a way that some seem to have found very convincing. And from little I have read about it, there are some cases where the psychological conviction seems innate and (in a young child) not associated with any other mental issue. I guess I have more skepticism about the late life transgender case. Married, a bunch of kids, still likes their wife, then can only find fulfilment as a woman? They are the cases where I would wonder what certain drugs may achieve in terms of a change of mind.
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