German doctors began hormone treatments on a twelve-year-old boy in preparation for "gender reassignment" surgery. Dr. Achim Wuesthof, who is treating the boy (who views himself as a girl), says of transsexuals: "They are not freaks, nor do they suffer mental illness. They are simply trapped in the wrong bodies. That is why it is best to help them as early as possible and reduce the trauma for them and their families." If only the medical community could be so enlightened about snakes trapped in human bodies who demand double amputation and a fusion of the legs to more closely resemble the reptiles they are. And how about old people trapped in the bodies of children? They have gently petitioned the medical community for years to intensely weather their skin so their octogenarian souls can fit their faces. Bigot doctors treat them for insanity rather than age-reassignment. When will they learn? When?

Wanting to be a boy or a girl seems less outlandish than wanting to be a reptile or near death.

Letting a 12-year-old have his way, rather than waiting for a time when he can be responsible for the choice, also seems outlandish to me.

I would like to know what the "doctor" means by someone being stuck in the wrong body.

Doesn't this suggest that somehow there are souls and that souls are radically distinct from their bodies and that they differ according to sex? Superstitious nonsense, if you ask me. And these guys are supposed to be enlightened men of science!?

Skeptic,

I had the same question. I agree that the good 'doctor' is talking nonsense.

You vill grow za' breasts, take your hormones, haff' your weiner chopped uof' und you vill shut up!!

I can feel his pain. I am undergoing species reassignment surgery because I'm really a wombat trapped in a human body.

Political conviction, like intense sexual deviation, makes people insane. It is insane to think, as this doctor does, that by cutting off a boy's penis and giving him drugs you will make him a girl.

Instead of mutilating his body and giving him hormones to make the kid's self-alientated sexual feelings worse, why don't they give him the opposite hormones? Why don't they develop treatment to make him more boyish?

I wonder whether they track the people after surgery to see how they feel after 5 years, 15 years, and so on. There must be data demonstrating whether the idea contributed to long term happiness or not.