As Nature Made Him By Ron Colapinto Analysis

In the book “As Nature Made Him,” Ron Colapinto writes about a family who goes through a traumatic experience after a shocking accident at the hospital. On August 22 1965, a young couple —Ron and Janet Reimer— welcomed twin boys into the world, Bruce and Brian. In 1966, a year after the twins were born, the couple took the twins to the St. Boniface hospital for a circumcision. Unfortunately one of the twins—Bruce— suffered a mishandled operation, which severely damaged his penis. The Reimer’s did not know what to do about their wounded child; they were ashamed of the appearance of his penis and did not want anybody to find out what happened. It was troubling for the Reamer’s until they saw an interview of a psychologist who specializes in gender reassignment, John Money, on the television. The couple agreed to a treatment—that was offered by John Money— which would alter Bruce’s gender. Dr. Money explained the gender reassignment treatment and the surgery, which would turn Bruce’s penis into a vagina and raise him as a girl instead a boy. After much serious thought the couple chose to do the operation— leading to Brian Reimer becoming Brenda Reimer. Dr. John Money believed “it is no longer possible to attribute psychological maleness or femaleness to chromosomal, gonadal or hormonal …show more content…
In contrast with John Moneys ideas, Milton Diamond believed that nature could override nurture. While being a student, Diamond organized an animal research by using guinea pigs that were pregnant and injecting them with different hormones to observe how their sexual behavior would be affected later. Diamonds evidence showed a connection between the hormones that were injected into the fetus and the sexual functioning later in their life; the outcome created a masculine identification of the