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What if some time in the future they can tell if a fetus is TG (or gay or whatever). The parents have the option to "fix" him so his brain develops in such a way that it matches the body he's born in -- essentially someone with a male body would have a brain happy to be in such a body, and vice versa.
Now if the parents decide they want to let nature run its course and have the baby as-is. What do they do after he is born? Do they raise him initially as a boy or a girl? Do they raise him as neutral until he states a preference? Maybe they fix his genitals at birth? Although not all TS' go the hormones/SRS approach for lots of reasons. Not least of which is getting married and having kids.
So what should the parent's do to raise a happy child? Story anyone? :)
{{Hugs}}
Frank
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Nice premise ;3
Wonderful premise for a horror story mew. I've treaded on that ground before ((not on this site, I've never actually published a story before, they just remain as little documents on my harddrive... till said harddrive gets hungry and eats them anyway mew... ^^'
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Bisexual, transsexual, gamer girl, princess, furry that writes horror stories and proud ^^
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D
Perhaps...
But, not as far out as you seem to believe. The recognizing in advance that someone will be TG, before they're born, or just after. There are many different ways to write a story with that premise: Parents are informed either before or just after their child is born. Responses can be all over the place.
I'm actually working on a story that has compassionate parents discovering that their child believes she's is a girl, but the birth certificate says boy and what they do... (Bedtime Story - 3...) It's just one way such a story could go.
As to making the child "happy" with their apparent birth sex (that is what is most apparent at birth)... IS that the right thing to do? That implies changing the child's mind/perception of things before such a child has a chance to do / think about it. It MIGHT make the life of those around the child 'easier'. It might even make the child's life 'easier'. But, I don't know that I'd bet on this. It assumes that the "cure" is perfect. Personally, I'm a girl and I was just born with the wrong plumbing. I'd rather fix the plumbing and remain me. I don't believe I'd still be "me" if my personality were changed enough so I was happy believing I was a guy. (My wife actually agree with me on this.) Others may feel differently. I'd be willing to bet that there are SOME parents out there in the world, if they were told their unborn child were transgendered, they'd have an abortion to get rid of the "abomination" or just to make it easier for them. There are parents today that make similar decisions when tests indicate their child will be born with Downs Syndrome.
It's an ethical quagmire.
Annette
The more likely use
The more likely use of the genetic recognition would be to selective terminate pregnancy's to "purify the race of these weird people" as has been suggested by the Canadian CAMH and J. Michael Bailey in his various publications (The Man Who Would Be Queen) and in NARTH (North American Research and Treatment of Homosexuals). Go to Lynn Conway's home page at http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/TSWomensResources.....
Find the pages that talk about Bailey and Blanchard, Zucker, Lawrence and others at CAMH, the old Clarke Institute, a eugenics institute that has its fingers into the official treatment of TS, and gets its funding from the Canadian Govt. If their names sound familiar to any degree, they are the ones the APA put in charge of revising Gender sections of the up coming DSM-5. Read about their attitudes and the way they perceive TS and TG people and you will get an idea of the problems with genetic testing as a further method of pathologization. And why so many of us are thinking of ways to avoid the Standards of Care that require mental evaluation by certified psych folks (many of whom should indeed be certified and sent to a home.).
CaroL
CaroL
That kind of technology...
...would be a boon to the health insurance industry. You'd take out a policy and find a ten page document listing all the exclusions - not only things like psych appointments, HRT and "the op", but also practically any condition where the stats revealed the policyholder had a significant chance of developing. Welcome to dystopia.
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Lynn Conway
Lynn Conway was in an interesting documentary I watched last night called Beautiful Daughters. I would recommend you watch it if you feel like you're a freak and there's no one quite like you out there.
The only problem I had with it -- it places a high amount of value on beauty as affirmation of femininity.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Correctable Developmental Anomaly
One of my favorite short stories on this site is Rachel Greenham's Correctable Developmental Anomaly, which starts from the same premise and explores one plausible outcome. It's close enough to what you're talking about that I thought it was worth mentioning here.
Thanks for the read
I do think I read this when it was posted. My real question is, if you do nothing and have the baby boy unaltered...how do you raise her/him until he is old enough to declare her own wishes?
{{hugs}}