Threat of youth suicide drives radical, body-disfiguring “sex reassignment” surgeries on minor children–should this be legal?

Defying Nature: Emily Pascal as a teenage girl, before undergoing her transgender “sex reassignment” surgeries to appear like the male she thinks she is. Paschal, 17, now identifies as “Emmet” (see video below) after having her healthy breasts surgically removed. Both Pascal’s parents and the medical professionals at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago cite her potential suicide as a key reason for pursuing the body-disfiguring operations as a minor.

 “We don’t offer anything that would have any long-lasting negative or irreversible effect unless this is truly a kid who’s older, who can make a wise decision, whose family is supportive.”— Dr. Scott Leibowitz, child and adolescent psychiatrist with Lurie Children’s Hospital’s Gender and Sex Development program

Folks, I am stunned at what passes for science and medical care these days. Emily Paschal, a 17-year-old girl from Gurnee, Illinois featured in these WYCC (PBS-Chicago) video segments, had her healthy adolescent breasts surgically removed as part of her “transitioning” process to become her male persona, “Emmet.” Her parents allowed the radical surgery in the name of helping their daughter become like the transgender “male” she thinks she is. They were assisted by Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, in a program led by an open homosexual, Dr. Robert Garofalo, who heads up the hospital’s “Gender and Sex Development Program.”

Last month I was interviewed by WYCC for this “In the Loop” segment,  “Raising a Transgender Teen,” without knowing the specifics of the Emily-“Emmet” Pascal story. WYCC is the lesser known of two PBS TV stations in Chicago, and this program aired September 24, 2015. WYCC used only a tiny portion of my interview, which is a shame because the reporter who interviewed me–not “In the Loop” host Barbara Pinto, who narrates the piece–was very fair and asked no “gotcha” questions. Note: I am identified here with “Center For Morality,” which will be a project of Americans For Truth as we transition to our new home in the Washington, D.C. area.

How tragic it is that the threat of suicide drives this entire process whereby panic-stricken parents–working with doctors who double as de facto LGBTQ activists–allow their child’s confused feelings to guide and rationalize the pursuit of permanent body-disfiguring operations.  Speaking of rationalizations: what would feminists say about Emily’s (“Emmet’s’) father Dirk Paschal recalling her leadership skills as a girl in the neighborhood as evidence that she was really a “boy.” Can’t girls be leaders?

The bottom line here is that doctors have become activists and pop-culture philosophers in pushing these extreme experimental “solutions” on vulnerable youth and their vulnerable parents–even though, as Dr. Garofalo admits (see 3:18 mark), the doctors are far from having all the answers. Most importantly, as he acknowledges, some kids overcome their sense of “gender nonconformity”–so why rush the operations and puberty-blocking drug “treatments”? And will we all one day as taxpaying Americans be subsidizing these horrific procedures through Obama-care? I question whether these radical “transgender” surgeries should even be legal for minors. More coming on this. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

Some highlights of the video are transcribed after the videos and the page jump: