Yesterday, I happened upon the following article on abcnews.com. The title, Buying Time for Gender-Confused Kids, is what caught my attention, but the opening paragraph of the article made me extremely curious: “A procedure that some are mistakenly calling a sex change treatment for children has been drawn into the spotlight in recent days — although it has been going on for many years.”

After reading this article, I have to say I was at a loss for words. And, I’m still not sure what to say as I write this post. Wait, I know what to say, but I’m not sure how to say it diplomatically. I will write about the gist of the procedure, but here is the link to the article for you to read it yourself: Gender-Confused Kids

According to this article, when kids are unsure if they want to remain a boy or girl (e.g. born a boy, but believe they are a girl trapped in a boy’s body or born a girl, but believe they are a boy trapped in a girl’s body), doctors provide medicine to delay the onset of puberty “,,,to allow the individual to come to terms with the direction he or she wants to go.” In other words, the doctors feel they are …”allowing the individual more time to make a decision.” Huh? The doctor interviewed in this article goes even further and explains, “Male transsexuals can avoid going through menstruation, while female patients can avoid growing body hair or developing a deep voice if they begin sex reassignment once their childhood hormone-blocking regimen ends.” Wow!

I bet you are wondering how do they (the doctors) actually do this. Well, according to the article, they inject “… either luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) or medroxyprogesterone, which block estrogen or testosterone to delay the onset of puberty.” The article states that this procedure is mostly done on girls who reach puberty early. In addition, the hormone-blocking process prevents “unwanted bodily features” just in case the child decides to have a sex change operation once they become an adult.

Now, am I wrong in my assessment in that the parents, as well as the doctors, are putting a huge responsibility onto the child’s shoulder? To make the decision on whether or not they want to “remain” the same sex in which they were born? I mean, really, how are they to understand everything that’s going on with this procedure? They are children! In this particular instance, it seems to me that, people are trying to play God or undo what God has done, thinking they know better.

The article about this procedure was written in May of 2008. I don’t know how much publicity it received (I certainly don’t remember it), but I really want to hear the opinions of 7DayBuzz readers on this. Do you think this is right? Should doctors be allowed to perform this type of procedure on children, even if the parents are consenting? Should children be allowed to make an important decision such as this?