Friday, March 28, 2014
An Open Letter to the Israeli Minister of Health about Species Reassignment Surgery
An Open Letter to the Israeli Minister of Health about Species Reassignment Surgery
To Yael German, Minister of Health
From: Steven Plaut
Re: Your proposal for new coverage of health insurance in Israel for "Sex Change" Surgery
Dear Minister German:
I read with great interest you new proposal to require Israeli "Sick Funds" or Health Maintenance Organizations to finance "Sex Change" surgeries for Israelis to be performed outside of Israel. The full story behind your proposal was reported in Haaretz this week - http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.582452 . According to your proposal, the health funds would cover the costs of any Israeli seeking to mutilate himself or herself, or what you prefer to call "genital reassignment surgery."
Now it is true that an Israeli approaching a surgeon and requesting that the surgeon slice off his or her pinky finger for no valid medical reason would be confined to a mental institution, and any surgeon performing such a request would be arrested for assault and mutilation. But you have the sensitivity and insight to appreciate that slicing off a pinky finger is a far worse form of bodily restructuring than slicing off sexual organs.
In any case, I am appealing to you to make your proposal more encompassing and less discriminatory. Why should Israeli health institutions ONLY cover genital reassignment surgery? Why are you refusing to order the health funds to finance species reassignment surgery as well? After all, the failure to finance species reassignment surgery is causing suffering and hardship for many people who were mistakenly born into bodies of the wrong species. It is time to remedy this!
Take me for example, Ever since I was the youngest of fellows, I have always felt that I should have been born a dolphin. I identify with dolphins, embrace dolphins, and see myself as part of the dolphin species. Sure, several psychiatrists have advised me to institutionalize myself in a loony ward. But this simply illustrates how unenlightened are so many of the medical professionals in Israel.
Madame Minister, why should the Israeli health system not pay for the surgery required to allow me to live my life to the fullest as a member of the proper species to which I truly belong, rather than being trapped in an inappropriate body for my entire life? Why should I be denied the opportunity to replace my arms with fins? Why can't I have my own properly functioning tail? Why should I not be able to align my species identity so that I can mate with the other dolphins of my true self-understanding?
My dream in life is to become part of a dolphin performance team in Sea World. But the obstinacy of the Israeli medical system is preventing me from fulfilling my dreams and living the life for which I was actually programmed, probably as far back as when I was in the womb. It is true that I am genetically human, but since when does genetic assignment count for anything? My true inner being is a dolphin, regardless of what genes I have been assigned.
So Madame Minister, end this travesty! End this discrimination. Acknowledge species reassignment surgery to be exactly as legitimate and appropriate as gender reassignment surgery. Do it today!
Admiringly yours,
Professor Steven Plaut