Nature v. Nurture
... to begin living as a male once again. As an adult, he has received hormone treatments and a new constructed penis. Psychologically he now seems well adjusted to being a male, even though he spent his childhood (ages 2-14) as a girl. There are many opinions on this topic. Most views are mixed on whether this experiment should have worked or not, concerning nature vs. nurture. My view is mixed as well. I feel that “nature” does have more to do with it than “nurture” though. For years, Dr. John Money had been claiming that an individual's gender identity is determined not by the hormones that bath a developing fetus' brain and nervous system, but by socialization. David Reimer's tragedy presented him with the perfect opportunity to prove his theory. There were two reasons for this: David was born with intact male genitalia (as opposed to hermaphrodites), and he had a twin brother against whom Dr. Money could measure his development as a girl. At the time of Bruce's accident, phalloplasty (penile reconstruction) was not a viable medical option, nor was, to Ron and Janet, the prospect of raising a son with testicles, but no penis. And so the decision was made, Bruce became "Brenda." According to the movie, and other studies, nineteen months was probably too late to try to switch the sex of a child. If the child has already begun to speak and has heard itself referred to as either a "he" or a "she", the imprinting of sexual self-identification may already have taken place. David Reimer may have had some awareness of being a boy from his life before he was switched to being a girl. His...