Transgenderism: Bioethical Issues

Abstract

The article analyses bioethical problems related to the concept of transgenderism and its understanding in the framework of biomedical discourse. The concept of “transgenderism” is linked with medicine, and gender dysphoria (International Classification of Diseases, 11th Edition) in particular. At the same time, the concept of transgenderism interacts with the social context. The article shows that the perception of transgenderism and transgenders by society has an impact both on the medical discourse and the notion of transgenderism in its context, and on the perception of “ordinary” people, or cisgender people, which is due to the gradual normalization of transgenderism. Thus, the concept of transgenderism requires an interdisciplinary approach and ethical, philosophical and bioethical consideration. Since the analyzed concept is directly related to medical problems, this study is based not only on bioethical studies, but also on sources in the field of medicine and sociological studies related to medicine. The article also analyzes the problem of applying the biomedical principles nonmaleficence" and principle of autonomy by Beauchamp and Childress, that have specifics applied to transgender children. This is due to the connection of transgenderism with another problem that lies in the interdisciplinary field —suicide. A number of studies on the quality of life of transgender people, as well as encyclopedic literature, mention suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts of transgenders. The article shows how the reinterpretation of transgenderism and its normalization change the boundaries of medical discourse, deducing transgenderism and suicide from medicine. The author concludes that the normalization of transgenderism and the change of its place in the medical discourse entails not only a transformation of medical discourse, but also affects other concepts like suicide, changes the approach to the treatment of transgender children, making the therapy of such children questionable from bioethical viewpoint.