One of the most egregious cases of ideological belief ruining a life has to have been the case of David Reimer. After a botched circumcision (which some of us have long considered an utterly unnecessary surgical procedure that should never be inflicted on boys without their permission--but that's a different subject), doctors talked his parents into having their infant son surgically altered and treated with hormones so he would develop as a little girl.

They were assured by the doctors as well as a psychologist that "gender is a social construct" and that, as such, it should be quite possible to raise the boy as a healthy girl. And, well, if "she" could never have children, so what? "She" could be just as happy adopting anyway.

So not only was the kid surgically castrated and treated chemically, but he was told he was a girl his entire life, raised exactly like a little girl, while his twin brother was raised as a boy. They named "her" Brenda.

Since this was all done to him very shortly after birth, he had no idea what was done to him--but the kid was miserable his entire life. He insisted on developing classically boyish behavior patterns even more strongly than what's typically found in tomboy girls. They couldn't even get him to stop peeing standing up. Extensive counseling and other medical interventions never helped much, but they never told him the truth until he was a teenager.

As soon as he did find out the truth, he immediately and inhesitantly did everything in his power to restore what was possible to restore of his masculinity, renaming himself David and doing everything medically and socially possible to regain what was taken from him.

He never was able to fully cope, however. Recently, tragically, David Reimer killed himself.

With all we know now about the differences in brain structure and chemistry between men and women that start as early as the womb, let's hope no child is ever subjected to a horribly abusive experiment like this again.

(Via Dean's World.)