Gender
Gender
There is no question that gender issues are complex, especially in today’s culture. However, healthcare professionals are committed to caring for all patients with dignity and respect. Protecting the freedom of healthcare professionals to exercise medical judgment and conscience convictions is essential to providing the best and safest care for patients, especially when it comes to gender issues.
“Transgender” individuals refer to their “gender” as a sexual identity that may be male or female, something in between, or neither. This self-identification differs from, and takes priority over, their biological sex as recognized in their chromosomal DNA and innate physical sexual characteristics. The naming of gender as a category set apart from sex is an idea foreign to the holistic view of the person as understood within Christianity. Christians affirm the biblical understanding of humankind as having been created male and female, with the two sexes having equal dignity and a complementary relationship to each other.
At the heart of disagreement over transgenderism is a difference in worldviews. If the human body is nothing more than the product of mindless, random, purposeless physical forces, then one may do with it what one wishes, even to demand medical and surgical cooperation in projects to alter, amputate or reconstruct normal tissue to conform to the patient’s revised psychological sense of identity. If, on the other hand, our bodies are an inseparable aspect of our true selves and are a good gift from God, who has designed the sexes to be wonderfully paired, and who has a purpose for humanity, then respecting the gift of given sexual identity and the ensuing moral obligations to our neighbors is the surest path to human flourishing.
We believe healthcare professionals should not be forced to violate their conscientious commitment to their patients’ health and welfare by being required to accept and participate in harmful gender-transition interventions, especially on the young and vulnerable. We affirm the obligation of Christian healthcare professionals caring for patients struggling with gender identity to do so with sensitivity and compassion, consistent with the humility and love that Jesus modeled and commanded us to show all people.
Resources
A compilation of resources to help parents, healthcare professionals, church leaders and others navigate the complexities of gender issues
Texas Scorecard Investigation
This piece from Texas Scorecard examines what scientifically reliable documentation and testimony say about the risks gender-affirming procedures pose to adults and children.
Transgender Research for Parents
This fact sheet from The Institute for Research & Evaluation offers five things every parent should know about gender confusion.
England Ends Gender-affirming Care
The Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine outlines how England is ending its gender-affirming model of care.
NHS Interim Public Consultation Guide
Released in October 2022 by England’s National Health Service, this guide presents a new model of care for gender dysphoria patients that focuses on mental health as opposed to gender-affirming care.
CMDA Position Statement on Transgender Identification
This ethical statement from Christian Medical & Dental Associations is based on scientific, moral and social principles to offer recommendations for healthcare professionals on treating patients with gender dysphoria.
Gender Regulations
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a rule under the Affordable Care Act that attempted to stretch the definition of sex discrimination beyond biology, to include a person’s perception of gender. The rule subjected healthcare professionals to punishment if they declined on the basis of morality or medicine to participate in transgender procedures and prescriptions.