Kerby Anderson

In his op-ed in The Hill, Dr. Merrill Matthews notes that there is a growing pushback against the practice of transgender surgery on minors. And the Supreme Court is even questioning state-level efforts to silence counselors who raise concerns about the practice.

He reminds us of how public opinion changed about lobotomy surgeries. These were done by severing the connection between the frontal lobe and other parts of the brain. They were widely practiced in the 1930s and 1940s. Today, they have been described by some as a medical horror story.

They were performed on patients with severe mental health problems. Although they were supposed to solve the problem, they often created others. By the 1950s, medical health professionals began to abandon the practice.

Dr. Matthews notices similarities to the lobotomy movement in the past and current efforts to defend transgender surgery on minors. “In both cases many practicing medical professionals denounced the procedures, while a relatively small percentage profited from the practice.”

As I have discussed in previous commentaries, adolescents going through puberty often have conflicting and confusing feelings. They are often trying to figure out who they are. As I have also discussed, social media is having an influence as well. Whole books have been written about the evidence for social contagion.

As one of my guests mentioned, this is one time when we could learn from Europe. Many countries are abandoning this practice. The Cass Report, written by Dr. Hilary Cass and submitted to England’s National Health Service, documents what he had always known: most children with gender dysphoria eventually grow out of it.

Transgender surgeries may be regarded in the future the way we regard lobotomy surgeries now.