David Reimer is a victim of what started as an experiment but has become routine medical procedure around the world.
When a circumcision operation went horribly wrong, doctors decided to turn the then eight-month-old David Reimer into a girl. It was argued that reassigning sex was easy. Nurturing, not nature, determined psychological make-up.
Well, David Reimer, now aged 34, is the angry, living proof of how wrong that assumption was.
He tells Jeff McMullen of a tortured childhood trying to be something he was not, of the bizarre therapy sessions with his twin brother where he was encouraged to adopt attitudes of sexual intercourse.
And he tells 60 Minutes of his eventual struggle to win back his manhood, a struggle involving countless operations, including a double mastectomy.
As McMullen reports, Reimer's story should sound alarm bells about sexual reassignment. Instead,
60 Minutes has been told that several of Australia's leading hospitals still routinely turn boys into girls.
If you've had a similar experience in your family and would like to talk about it, or if you'd like to access some current research on this topic, please email jcress@attglobal.net.
Reporter - Jeff McMullen. Producer - Julian Cress.
