Guest post: Such a terrible flaw
Originally a comment by Artymorty on Many doctors share our concerns.
Doctor groups like the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) and the Canadian Pediatric Society (CPS) came out swinging.
Doctor’s groups aren’t the same thing as patients’ groups, though. And doctors’ groups aren’t even the same thing as groups of doctors. Doctors’ groups are special interest bureaucracies, and the policies they advocate are not always in line with the interests of the patients at the receiving end of their respective fields of medicine, and they’re often not even in line with the majority of doctors working in the fields they purport to represent. Doctors’ interests diverge from patients’ interests all the time. That’s why medical scandals keep happening. And doctors’ groups’ interests diverge also from doctors’ interests, because the doctors they purport to represent are often too busy treating their patients to rigorously vet all the various policies the groups endorse, and the groups themselves are made up of office busybodies with plently of time to get persuaded by pharmaceutical lobbies or other parties with financial interests.
It’s lazy journalism to assume doctors’ groups speak for all doctors, just like it’s lazy journalism to let supposed gay rights lobbies like GLAAD, HRC & Stonewall UK speak for all gays & lesbians.
And maybe that’s the real reason for the intense pressure. People who have already transed want company.
They want company. And clout. And most of all, they want cover. Some adults who engage in unreasonable behaviours and make unreasonable demands want the veneer of legitemacy that comes with associating their behaviour with vulnerable children born special.
And other adults with obvious mental health conditions have made bad decisions they can’t undo. This group, trapped by the sunk cost fallacy and haunted by the truth seeping in through the cracks, are seeking solace by vicariously convincing others that “transness” is an innate state and that going ahead with transition is never a mistake.
It’s such a terrible psychological flaw in humans, our capacity to do great harm to others rather than admit that we made mistakes and harmed ourselves.
This is an important point that few people understand. These are “professional associations,” and their policy statements–such as the America Academy of Pediatrics’ embrace of “gender affirmative care”–are made by committees. Committees, in the case of so-called “gender” so-called “medicine,” of doctors working and invested in that particular subfield.
I’ve tried to explain this to people but it’s hard going.
Quite. As an example, the AMA lobbied for medical student numbers to be restricted, and they were. The AMA’s concern was reportedly doctor’s salaries, and now there’s a Doctor shortage.
Just because a doctor’s group demands something doesn’t mean it’s necessarily in anyone’s best interests. I rather suspect doctors these days wish they had more colleagues, not less.