Tuesday, 12 August 2014
All change for one Kipper at least.
Even the most cynical of us would have to admit that when it comes to gender politics there has been movement in the right direction. It's difficult to imagine old time fight game impresarios like Jack Solomons and Harry Levine telling the world that they always felt themselves to be women trapped inside the body of a man. But when former boxing manager and promoter Frank Maloney announced that he would like to be known as Kellie in future and was undergoing sex change procedures there was nothing but support and understanding from the boxing world with everyone from Lennox Lewis to Steve Bunce wishing Maloney well. What Kellie Maloney's old comrades in UKIP will make of it all remains to be seen. Much choking on the G&Ts I would imagine.
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I wish the person concerned well in her new identity. I did not want to address this problem but fear I must. Although my main area in medicine is transplants and end points of life, I have covered several research projects in gender reassignment surgery (GRS), most recently last year at the Univ Hospital.Articles about celebrities undergoing this surgery convey the impression that it is a straightforward lifestyle choice opposed only by bigots. But whilst surgical skills have improved since the days when an occasional willy came off in the toilet there are still major philosophical, ethical and psychological problems to overcome. It is not just a case of informed consent, or recognizing a woman trapped in a mans body which can be rectified by surgery.
Here is an amusing anecdote: some years ago to was teaching a group of highly experienced surgeons on the problems of GRS, considering criteria such as evidence of having lived one's life as a member of the other sex. I asked them to consider - hypothetically - an example of a person who tried to live as a werewolf and asked them for an assessment of surgical possibilities, which they supplied. Not too difficult: hormones for the hair, orthodontics for the teeth, plastic surgery for the face, ears, nose, and some tricky work on the knees and shortening of legs. Perfectly possible. So why refuse a patient who threatens suicide if you don't operate? A wild example to test a principle, but we have had suicide threats from people who want to change back to their original gender. OK, its a major problem and not something which can be trawled out to hit UKIP, who will be flattened by the political classes and their media come the election.
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