During this process, however, one twin, David Reimer’s, penis was burned off by an electrocautery needle. A catheter took the place of the child’s penis as their parents explored their options. During this time, phallic reconstruction was a crude and unpracticed operation (Colapinto). Doctors had little hope that this operation would be successful, and even if it was, the reconstructed penis would never have the normal capacity of a real penis. Nearly seven months since the accident, Joan/John’s parents caught wind of Dr. John Money. Money was making great strides in the research of gender and gender identity. It is widely believed that he even coined the phrase “gender identity”. Dr. Money was a driving force behind the John Hopkins medical center 's Gender identity clinic (Colapinto). He believed that the child could undergo a sex change operation in which his dismembered penis would be turned into a vagina, and that he would transition well into the female gender as long as his family acted like and convinced him that he had always been a girl. Money was drawn to this case because of their being another twin boy who could act as a control group during an experiment that he would conduct for a
During this process, however, one twin, David Reimer’s, penis was burned off by an electrocautery needle. A catheter took the place of the child’s penis as their parents explored their options. During this time, phallic reconstruction was a crude and unpracticed operation (Colapinto). Doctors had little hope that this operation would be successful, and even if it was, the reconstructed penis would never have the normal capacity of a real penis. Nearly seven months since the accident, Joan/John’s parents caught wind of Dr. John Money. Money was making great strides in the research of gender and gender identity. It is widely believed that he even coined the phrase “gender identity”. Dr. Money was a driving force behind the John Hopkins medical center 's Gender identity clinic (Colapinto). He believed that the child could undergo a sex change operation in which his dismembered penis would be turned into a vagina, and that he would transition well into the female gender as long as his family acted like and convinced him that he had always been a girl. Money was drawn to this case because of their being another twin boy who could act as a control group during an experiment that he would conduct for a