Legal Juice
Too quick, said the United Kingdom’s General Medical Council disciplinary panel, of Dr. Russell Reid, the UK’s top expert on transsexualism. The panel concluded that Dr. Reid’s treatment of patients B,C,D, E and F was inappropriate, not in their best interests, and in breach of international guidelines on the treatment of transsexuals. Here are the panels conclusions:
Dr Reid was found to have prescribed hormones to Patient B despite lacking any evidence to corroborate that she was transsexual. She told the inquiry she was severely depressed and felt trapped in gender limbo.
The gender psychiatrist was found to have given Patient C, a convicted paedophile, hormones and referred him for surgery too quickly and without evidence that he was truly transsexual. Patient C – a male-to-female transsexual who has reverted to living as a man – told the inquiry that he wanted his sex change reversed.
Dr Reid was found to have prescribed Patient D male hormones against the advice in a second opinion provided by another psychiatrist. The patient, who wanted to change sex in order to fulfil a delusion that she was turning into Jesus, only avoided surgery to remove both her breasts because she was sectioned and diagnosed with manic depression. She told the inquiry she was never transsexual and claimed she had been misdiagnosed by Dr Reid.
The disciplinary panel determined that Dr Reid also prescribed patients E and F with hormones too quickly and without an adequate assessment of their health or proof that they were transsexuals.
I’m thinking you want to err on the side of EXTREME CAUTION. So will Dr. Reid be barred from practicing medicine?
Don’t know. The panel will announce their decision later this week. And that’s not the end of Dr. Reid’s problems. He’s facing several civil suits. One patient, Claudia, said she was given sex-changing hormones and referred for genital surgery after a single appointment with Dr Reid. She claimed she was “rushed” into a sex change and that it had been “devastating” for her.
It should be noted, though, that Dr. Reid has many supporters in the transsexual community, who refer to him as “Uncle Russell.”
The source for this story, a Guardian article, may be found by clicking here.