Two large medical organizations just recommended that minor children should no longer receive so-called transgender medical treatments. While the public may rejoice at this move, it is too early to celebrate the bravery of the medical community. They didn’t make this recommendation because it was the correct thing to do. They acted in cowardly self-interest, and for that they should be vilified.

These medical organizations only changed their minds about transgender treatments for kids because a former patient sued a doctor for malpractice and won. Last Monday, a 22-year-old woman named Fox Varian won a $2 million malpractice settlement from two doctors in New York. Psychologist Kenneth Einhorn and surgeon Simon Chin recommended that Fox Varian receive the life-altering double mastectomy surgery when she was just 16-years-old. Varian later detransitioned and then sued the doctors for what was done to her. This decision was the first example of a detransitioner malpractice lawsuit in the nation to go to trial and win.

Alaska statute prohibits minors from getting tattoos; the same language could be applied to the barbaric practice of transgender medical treatments.

The day after the malpractice award was made, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons made a change in their previous position and recommended that any transgender medical treatments should wait until the patient reaches adulthood. The day after that, the American Medical Association (AMA) made the same recommendation. This is a big deal. Both of these are large professional medical organizations. The AMA is the largest medical association representing physicians in this country, and up until this Wednesday, both organizations had been staunch supporters of so-called gender affirming medical treatments.

Evidently seeing the likelihood of additional future lawsuits, these organizations acted in the self-interest of the doctors they represent and changed their guidelines for treating minor children with gender dysphoria. While it was the right move, these organizations don’t deserve any credit for making it. Had they come out before the lawsuit and said a reexamination of the practice has revealed that transgender treatments are not in the patient’s best interest, their changed recommendation would be applauded. Instead, they only made the change after malpractice lawsuits became a threat to their members. If only they cared for their patients as much as they care for their pocketbooks.

Here in Alaska, despite the recommendations, transgender treatments are still legal. Although the Alaska Medical Board voted back in August to approve a draft resolution to punish medical providers who provided this treatment for kids, the resolution is waiting for approval by the Alaska Department of Law before implementation. If the Department of Law acts with the same glacial pace they are using to address the unconstitutional change to the grand jury process made by SCO 1993, this resolution will never see the light of day.

One solution would be for the legislature to act. It would seem a simple matter to introduce a law making the practice illegal. It shouldn’t be that difficult. Alaska statute prohibits minors from getting tattoos; the same language could be applied to the barbaric practice of transgender medical treatments. All it would take is one brave legislator to introduce legislation to do so. Maybe it hasn’t gotten done because the Democrat run legislature is too busy trying to steal the rest of our PFD check to do something important like protecting kids.

If the legislature fails to act, there is a chance this issue will gain attention in the governor’s race. This is an election year, and candidate/former doctor Matt Heilala was on the Alaska Medical Board when it voted to advance the draft resolution on transgenderism last August. He is now running for governor, and although polls show he is trailing in this race, this might be an issue that he can highlight to help Alaska’s kids and benefit his election chances at the same time.

Whoever it is, and whatever their motivations, someone needs to acknowledge that it is immoral to perform life-altering optional medical treatments on a kid who isn’t old enough to order a beer or get a tattoo. It is time for the state to ban this practice.

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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