Causes of, & cures for, transexuality
according to the Catholic Church
Sponsored link.
Background:
As noted elsewhere in this section a transgendered
individual is a
person who experiences sustained Gender Identity Disorder (a.k.a. GID, Gender Dysphoria), Their genetic gender is different
from their perceived gender. Some describe themselves as a woman trapped in a man's body,
or vice versa. Others view themselves as having a male brain in a female body,
or vice versa.
There are two obvious ways to resolve this conflict:
Change the person's thoughts so that the accept their genetic gender: Our
scientific knowledge of the workings of the human brain are not developed to
the point where this is possible; it may never be. A full range of therapies
have been tried in an attempt to cure GID.
There has allegedly been not a
single cure during many decades of attempts. What there has been is a massive
suicide rate, claimed by some to be about 50%.
Change the person's physical appearance to match their perceived
gender. In this way, a woman who felt trapped in a man's body can be
altered to appear to be female through hormone therapy and perhaps gender
reassignment surgery. Their perceived gender and their physical appearance
become harmonized. The vast majority are pleased with the changes.
This second approach is forbidden by
the Roman Catholic Church, because of their system of morality, ironically called
the "Culture of Life."
Response by Fr. William P. Saunders:
A reader of the Catholic Herald from Roseville, CA asked Father
Saunders -- a columnist from the magazine:
"I know a man who had a 'sex change' operation and is now a 'woman.' What
moral teaching does the Church give on this subject?" 1,2
Father Saunders quoted a Vatican II document titled: "Pastoral
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World." It stated that:
"Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily
condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him
they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in
praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his
bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in
honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day."
When applied to transsexuality, the document implies that a person with GID
must accept their body as it is. Surgically modifying one's body would be a sin.
He also quotes Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19:
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"
The implication is that one's body is not one's own to be changed at will.
Finally, he quotes the Catholic Catechism, item 2297:
"Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reason, directly
intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent
persons are against the moral law."
The process of sexual reassignment involves major changes to the persons
body. For a male-to-female (MTF) transsexual, this involves removal of the
penis, testicles, and scrotum. It involves hormone treatment and perhaps surgery
to enlarge the breasts, removing part of the Adam's apple, and/or changing the
shape of her face. For a female-to-male (FTM) transsexual it involves the
surgical removal of the breasts, uterus, ovaries, and hormone treatment, Fr. Sanders refers to this as:
"... a radical and grotesque mutilation of the body....To destroy organs
purposefully that are healthy and functioning, and to
try to create imitation organs which will never have the genuineness
and functioning of authentic organs is gross and lacks charity. Such
surgery which purposefully destroys the bodily integrity of the person
must be condemned."
For matters like marriage and ordination, the church considers only the
genetic gender of the individual. Thus a MTF transsexual could not marry a man,
even if they were able to obtain a marriage license, because the church would
regard this as a same-sex marriage of two males. A MTF transexual might not be
able to marry a woman even though the church considered them as an opposite-sex
couple. The church has refused to marry some couples in the past who cannot
conceive children. Similarly a FTM transsexual would not be eligible for
consideration for ordination, no matter what his appearance, personality,
talents or knowledge are.
Fr. Saunders notes that transsexualism appears to stem from psychological development,
and thus should be treated by psychotherapy. He may not be aware that this has
been tried countless thousands of times, apparently without a single successful outcome.
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Is there any wiggle room that would allow a Catholic
to undergo SRS?
If one accepts the teaching of the church that sex reassignment surgery (SRS)
and hormone treatments distort the God-designed and God-created human body to
the extent that it is a very serious sin, one might ask if there are extenuating
circumstances which would make the procedures acceptable to the church.
There is a widespread belief called the "50% Rule:" that 50% of all
transsexuals die before the age of 30, usually by suicide. This was apparently
true decades ago when SRS was generally unavailable. It is presumably much lower
today since SRS has become more widely available, and are close to 100%
successful in their goal of minimizing GID.
In most ethical systems, an act that is sinful by itself can sometimes be
justified if it results in a greater good. For example, during pregnancy
situations can arise where an abortion is needed to prevent the death of the
woman. If no abortion is performed, both the fetus and the woman
will die. Faced with the alternatives of one death or two, most ethical system
would consider the abortion very regrettable, but morally justified.
In the case of transsexuals, one could argue that to make SRS unavailable
would significantly increase the number of suicides within that population.
Assuming that the incidence of transsexuals is 1 in every 5,000, they total
perhaps 60,000 in the U.S. For every 100 SRS procedures performed, the lives of
perhaps 25 transsexuals could be saved from suicide. Could those 25 lives saved
outweigh the sin of 100 SRS procedures?
The answer is no. A prime directive of Catholic moral teaching is that one
cannot morally commit an evil act even if the end result would be a major
benefit. In the previously cited case of a pregnancy gone bad, no abortion is
morally possible. The physician can only provide comfort care. Both the woman
and fetus must die. In the case of transsexuals, no SRS procedure is
permissible, even if one life might be saved for every four procedures
performed.
Fortunately, the Church offers a way to resolve this dilemma: confession. A
transsexual might elect to undergo SRS, and later confess their sin to a priest
with genuine sorrow during the sacrament of penance. They could promise to not
undergo any further reassignment surgery, and receive absolution.
Unfortunately, this path would not allow continuation of hormone treatments,
which we assume the Church also considers a sin. That is because one of
the principles of confession is the person's intent to not repeat the sin in the
future.
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
"Straight Answers: The Morality of 'Sex Change' Operations," The Catholic
Herald, 2005-OCT-19, at:
http://www.catholicherald.com/
"Straight Answers: Surgery That Destroys Bodily Integrity," The Catholic
Herald, 2001-JAN-10, at:
http://www.catholicherald.com/
