. Dr Money
and the Boy with No Penis An experiment on nature versus nurture goes tragically wrong. BBC United Kindom, Science & Nature (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/dr_money_prog_summary.shtml) |
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On When they were seven months old, the
boys, who lived in |
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It wasn't until several months later that Janet and her husband, Ron,
saw a television programme that gave them some hope. Dr John Money, a highly
renowned sexologist, featured in a debate about sex change operations on
transsexuals. He had brought a transsexual with him who was convincingly
feminine looking. Perhaps, thought Janet Reimer, this was the solution - they could turn
their baby son into a daughter. She wrote to Dr Money immediately. He
responded swiftly and invited them to come and visit him in Dr Money is a highly intelligent, well respected, charismatic
individual. He suggested to the Reimers that they bring their son up as a
girl. Thus, when Bruce was 18 months old, he was castrated and a rudimentary
vulva was created for him. The family now called him Brenda and tried to
treat him like a little girl. Dr Money was the answer to the Reimers' prayers, but they were the
answer to his too. He had studied people known then as hermaphrodites, now
referred to as intersex, who are physically both male and female. As it was
surgically easier to turn these people into females, this was standard
practice. The gender gate Janet Reimer wrote to Dr Money of Brenda's progress and once a year
the whole family visited him in Nurture not nature determines whether we feel feminine or masculine.
Widely cited in many text books, the case was a landmark study - hailed as
proof of the overwhelming force of nurture - in spite of increasing evidence
that hormones both in the womb and throughout a child's life, play a huge
part in an individual's perception of themselves as masculine or feminine. Meanwhile, back in Convincing Brenda of her gender He showed her graphic photographs of a woman giving birth when she was
seven years old in an attempt to get her to agree to having a 'baby-hole'
made. He also suggested strongly that she take hormone tablets in order to
make her grow breasts when she was 12. Other scientists, including Dr Money's
ex-students, argue that he did these things in the best possible interests
for his patient - to make her believe that she was indeed a girl. Brenda
however felt traumatised and became suicidal. Finally when she was 13, the family told her and Brian the truth.
Brenda was intensely relieved as she had felt she was going insane. Almost
immediately she turned herself back into a boy and called herself David.
David received compensation money for the circumcision and used this to pay
for surgery to have a new penis constructed. In his early twenties he met
Jane Fontane, who had three children of her own, and they married. Unfortunately, his relationship with his brother worsened. Brian had
felt that David, as Brenda, had received all the attention when they were growing
up; once he discovered that he was no longer the only boy in the family, he
became extremely angry. It was the start of mental disturbance that would
develop into schizophrenia. After two failed marriages, he died, possibly of
a drug overdose, which may have been a suicide attempt. David had never managed to complete his education and had to take
semi-skilled work. He was made redundant and was unemployed for a year. He
sold the movie rights to his story, but lost the money when a business man
absconded with his investment. Stricken with grief for his brother, his
marriage started to fail. Jane asked him for a short separation period, but
David took this very badly. He returned to his parents' house for a few days,
before driving to a supermarket car park on |
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Dr Money argues that he cannot be held to
blame because David did not accept a female gender identity. He says that the
family delayed making a decision until their son was almost two, just before
the gender gate was about to shut. Others, however, argue that he could have
admitted he made a mistake when the case clearly was not working, for he
continued to let people believe that it had been successful long after he had
stopped seeing Brenda and she had become David. It is, perhaps above all, a
cautionary tale of what may happen when a scientist falls in love with a
beautiful theory and ignores the ugly facts. |
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