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This article is about the tragic story, which shocked many people and attracted the attention of the majority of scholars. It shows us what happened as a result of erroneous statements of scientist who welcomes a beautiful theory and denies the terrible circumstances. Also, it reveals the important question of what actually creates the gender.
It was August 22, 1965, when Janet Reimer gave birth for two boys - twins, Bruce and Brian. At birth, the children were completely healthy, but after 7 months, April 27, 1966 the brothers were sent to the hospital for a circumcision procedure the foreskin because of the disease, called phimosis. Unfortunately, that procedure was not successful. When doctor operated Bruce, he took electrocautery machine, which is used for stop the blood by point cautery in modern time. However, it was a faulty electrical appliance, and Bruce's penis was completely burned off. Parents were shocked; they did not know what to do in that situation. Moreover, a surgery for penile reconstruction was impossible. So, a few months later, the parents of twins, Janet and Ron, paid attention to the TV program, which gives them a hope to get help from specialized sexologist John Money. The family of Reimer made a request for assistance to the deserved and very clever doctor, who in turn encouraged them to raise their son as a daughter. Therefore, at the age of 18 months Bruce was castrated. Now his name was Brenda, of whose mother tried to cultivate a real girl. Janet dressed Brenda the most beautiful dresses, taught her to cook and do make-up. However, despite the use of hormonal therapies, Brenda never felt herself as a girl and did not want to be her. When the brothers turned 14 years old, the parents told them the whole truth. Since then Brenda decided to identify herself as a boy and she became David Reimer.
After a long time, David at the age of 30 met the psychologist and honored Professor Milton Diamond. He was particularly interested in the story of David. Thus, together with H. Keith Sigmundson (a doctor and a psychiatrist, who was watching David in age from 8 to 20), Diamond successfully refuted the theory of Money, which said that nurture, as opposed to nature, is fully forms human gender. The discovery of scientists Diamond and Sigmundson was published in scientific journals and other media.
In additional to this, David started to work with well-known journalist John Colapinto to criticize the erroneous theories and statements of Dr. Money. J. Colapinto set out ‘The John/Joan case’ December 11, 1997 in the Rolling Stone magazine, and also in a bestselling book ‘As Nature Made Him: The boy that was raised as a girl’.
Unfortunately, the greatest misfortune for Janet and Ron was happened in 2002. Their son Brian committed suicide, which most likely was occurred in consequence of psychological disorder which calls schizophrenia. Shortly, after 2 years, David also committed suicide. It is a real story about how family life was marred by radical theory of one doctor.
In conclusion, I want to say that such a cautionary tale gives us the opportunity to understand that we should not selfishly refers to any situation in life, and orientate all the positive aspects only to our side. A person should think about the consequences, which can be either positive or negative in the course of actions. In this tragic story, we have no right to judge who is right and who is wrong. However, the fate of the twins was almost clear after a terrible circumcision procedure. No matter how horrible it sounds, but psychological disorders, research intervention, stress and frustration were predictable aspects for Reimers’ family. I am proud of David, because in spite of physical handicaps, he was trying to live a full of life with his wife and her kids, as well as show his own personal feelings and thoughts to refute false information of intrusive scientist. David died young, and that death was stupid and unnatural. However, people will remember this man during a long time and study the story of his life in details.
References
O'Connell, Sanjida. Dr Money and the Boy with No Penis. BBC. Horizon. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUTcwqR4Q4Y. Television.
