Doctor attempts to 'cure' lesbianism.
From The Stranger via Dan Savage:
Meyer-Bahlburg suggests that treatments with prenatal dexamethasone might cause these girls’ behavior to be closer to the expectation of heterosexual norms: “Long term follow-up studies of the behavioral outcome will show whether dexamethasone treatment also prevents the effects of prenatal androgens on brain and behavior.”
In a paper published just this year in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, New and her colleague, pediatric endocrinologist Saroj Nimkarn of Weill Cornell Medical College, go further, constructing low interest in babies and men-and even interest in what they consider to be men’s occupations and games-as “abnormal,” and potentially preventable with prenatal dex
It seems more than a little ironic to have New, one of the first women pediatric endocrinologists and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, constructing women who go into “men’s” fields as “abnormal.” And yet it appears that New is suggesting that the “prevention” of “behavioral masculinization” is a benefit of treatment to parents with whom she speaks about prenatal dex.
Yep, homosexuality is still being considered an abnormality by at least some members of the medical community. I'd heard someone once say that music is too important to be left to mere musicians. Might I humbly suggest that this statement be modified to "Science is too important to be left to mere scientists"?
Meyer-Bahlburg suggests that treatments with prenatal dexamethasone might cause these girls’ behavior to be closer to the expectation of heterosexual norms: “Long term follow-up studies of the behavioral outcome will show whether dexamethasone treatment also prevents the effects of prenatal androgens on brain and behavior.”
In a paper published just this year in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, New and her colleague, pediatric endocrinologist Saroj Nimkarn of Weill Cornell Medical College, go further, constructing low interest in babies and men-and even interest in what they consider to be men’s occupations and games-as “abnormal,” and potentially preventable with prenatal dex
It seems more than a little ironic to have New, one of the first women pediatric endocrinologists and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, constructing women who go into “men’s” fields as “abnormal.” And yet it appears that New is suggesting that the “prevention” of “behavioral masculinization” is a benefit of treatment to parents with whom she speaks about prenatal dex.
Yep, homosexuality is still being considered an abnormality by at least some members of the medical community. I'd heard someone once say that music is too important to be left to mere musicians. Might I humbly suggest that this statement be modified to "Science is too important to be left to mere scientists"?