In a rare outbreak of common-sense, a leading Australian surgeon is calling for a ban on cutting the breasts of teenage girls seeking to change their gender.
“I can’t think of any circumstances in which a 15-year-old person should be electively having a double mastectomy. This is irreversible and is major surgery,” Mark Ashton, a plastic surgery specialty-elected counsellor to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Melbourne University professor of surgery, told today’s Australian.
His comments were in response to news that a 15-year-old girl recently had both breasts removed in her quest to try and become a boy.
The irony is that if Ahston turned away such a child seeking “gender affirming” surgery he could be jailed for practicing “conversion therapy” in Queensland, the ACT or Victoria, such is the stupidity of Labor and Liberal politicians who have passed these laws in recent years.
“In my opinion, because of its permanency, the surgical procedure needs to be delayed, at least until the person is 18,” Ashton said.
“It is really incumbent upon the federal health minister, state ministers and the national regulatory body, AHPRA to ensure that these patients, our children, are protected from less scrupulous unethical practitioners who see transgender surgery as yet another opportunity to make money.”
LGBTIQA+ political activists refer to the procedure by the euphemism “top surgery”.
“If you’re banning Botox or fillers fundraisings but saying gender reassignment surgeries are OK, I think we’ve got a problem,” another surgeon, speaking anonymously, told the Australian.
“I would certainly think this incredibly invasive and life-changing surgery needs to have decisions made by adults. This surgery is very disfiguring, it’s irreversible and it needs to be put into that context – it’s a major, major, major change, and it shouldn’t be being offered to children.”
LGBTIQA+ political activists often assert that “gender affirming top surgery” on minors doesn’t happen but the surgeons speaking to today’s Australian say it does and it is on the rise.
These surgeries are recorded treatment for cancer so it is unknown how many children have had their breasts removed in order to identify as boys.
Family First believes there should be a Royal Commission into so-called “gender affirmation” treatment of children.
The surgeons’ comments follow revelations at the weekend of a leaked letter from the Endocrine Society of Australia expressing grave concerns about the use of puberty blockers on gender confused children.
Last month England’s National Health Service banned the use of puberty blockers on children but it is illegal in Queensland, the ACT or Victoria to dissuade a child from taking them under “conversion therapy” laws.