Mengele’s Heirs Tighten the Screws. Last week, the Netherlands approved a law under which psychiatrists and therapists may face up to two years in prison if they engage in what is called “conversion therapy”—that is, if they help a girl remain a girl rather than proceed with a double mastectomy.
As is often the case with laws of this kind, it remains highly uncertain how it will actually be enforced. It will almost certainly apply to situations in which someone is persuaded to transition, later concludes that they never truly wanted to become a boy, realizes the underlying problem lay elsewhere, and seeks to reclaim their former life. Attempting the opposite course in the Netherlands will now be a criminal offense, meaning that such treatment will likely move abroad. But what about cases in which someone requests a gender transition and a psychiatrist determines that the real issue is schizophrenia? Will that, too, be punishable? At this point, no one knows.
In any event, the practical effect is clear. If an “expert” sends a patient down the path of hormones and surgery, there is little personal risk. If that same professional instead attempts to address the patient’s underlying psychological problems, he or she assumes the risk of criminal prosecution.
The broader transgender debate has thus taken an interesting turn. When the issue first emerged, enthusiasm was common in liberal circles, while conservatives warned that it pointed toward a society in which people would choose their sex according to their mood from one day to the next. Yet there is little evidence that events have unfolded in that direction. Instead, the phenomenon has at times taken on an almost comic quality, with individuals identifying as cats or dinosaurs, while overall public interest appears to be waning. Increasingly, transgenderism seems to be evolving not into a broad social trend but into a cause imposed upon society through coercive force.