Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/advocacy/pressrelease/?id=21
Published: 13th April 2004
In an in-depth look at 'Gender Identity Disorder', Prof Andrew Sims, former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and a member of CMF, encourages Christian medical professionals to affirm the dignity of transsexual people and protect them from discrimination, while being honest and professional about their condition.
“The challenge for Christians is to love all people genuinely and find ways of befriending them but any solution that simply pretends that a person's sex is not biologically determined is both dishonest and uncaring”, says Prof Sims in his article. “Surgical, hormonal and legal fixes do not deal with the real problem. People in the caring professions need to provide compassionate professional support for transsexual people that does not involve any form of deception.”
“Most psychiatrists studying people with transsexualism say that their beliefs can be described as 'over-valued ideas'. People with over-valued ideas believe something to be true beyond any bounds of reason; they firmly believe they are one sex even though all physical evidence suggests they are the other”, writes Sims.
The article first considers the scientific and medical facts of the condition and the treatments available, before looking at transsexuality from a Christian perspective. The review goes on to discuss the issues that are raised by recent moves to allow transsexual people to redefine their sex, and the implications for institutions such as marriage.
Prof Sims goes on to challenge doctors, saying that by simply acquiescing to people's medical and legal demands, they will not provide the full support and care people need, particularly if doing so could in itself harm their families and friends.
Prof Sims' article in the April addition of CMF Files can be downloaded from here. Also included in the April edition of Nucleus, CMF's quarterly student journal, is an article on the ethics of cybernetics and nanotechnology, while the spring edition of Triple Helix, includes a feature examining lessons from the MMR/Autism debate and a review of acupuncture in the light of Christian principles. Each of these articles is available from the CMF website, at www.cmf.org.uk
Steven Fouch (CMF Head of Communications) 020 7234 9668
Alistair Thompson on 07970 162 225
Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) was founded in 1949 and is an interdenominational organisation with over 5,000 doctors, 900medical and nursing students and 300 nurses and midwives as members in all branches of medicine, nursing and midwifery. A registered charity, it is linked to over 100 similar bodies in other countries throughout the world.
CMF exists to unite Christian healthcare professionals to pursue the highest ethical standards in Christian and professional life and to increase faith in Christ and acceptance of his ethical teaching.
