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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mesaba who wrote (19645)	4/2/1998 5:29:00 PM
From: Charliss	Respond to of 108807

Hi there Mesaba, I am not aware of any funding of sexual reassignment surgery for prisoners. Just maintaining them on hormone and other drug treatments is very controversial, and often not happening at all. New York State just announced its plan to no longer provide this surgery for its Medicaid beneficiaries. Along with this, the governor stated the great waste of the taxpayers' money: a grand total of $250,000 spent on four Medicaid patients since 1991...I would suppose that would include not only the surgery, but also all the ancillary, medical, and counselling services too for over an extended period of time. In either case, prison or medicaid, I don't think the real issue is money. The number of transsexuals, especially those transitioning, is simply too small in the scheme of things, and this figure is even further reduced in the context of prison or medicaid. To fund this, it might cost me about 3/4 of a cent a year as a taxpayer..I would think the objection then would be based on something else, truth be told. To examine this from a humane, an ethical point of view, would be different. Given what I know, I would be in favor of funding any necessary and appropriate treatment, just as I would for diabetes, say, or depression. It is important to understand here that the issue is not disease, but humane and ethical consideration followed by humane and ethical treatment. The consideration must come first, and I believe this is the point at which minds diverge, and then the nature of the action follows. Ultimately, it becomes a question of power, or one might say politics. I think though that I might stop just short of funding the sexual reassignment surgery for someone in prison or on welfare or medicaid. My reasoning is that this is an incredible social and psychological experience even for those transsexuals who have otherwise transitioned successfully. One really has to have ones life together, as they say, for this to make any sense, and this would not appear to be the case in the instances we are discussing here. I would be very cautious here, as are all ethical and compassionate psychotherapists, medical doctors, and surgeons. Myself, I like a discussion such as this (I gather you are the one who started this, or perhaps Christine?) It can challenge us to think more clearly and completely about the essential differences between sex and gender, for instance, and ultimately about many other things about which there is some amount of confusion and fear in our world today. At its best, such a conversation may lead individuals to better understand themselves as well as others, and thus lead us to that place where we may then consciously, deliberately and intentionally, have the opportunity to see that the real choice, when it comes to organizing and leading our lives, is the one of choosing either love or fear. Best, Charliss