An experiment that actually took place: raising a boy as a girl. Following a medical accident in infancy, David Reimer was raised as a female. After discovering the truth during his adolescence, he chose to live as a man, but his life challenged medical ethical standards and forced society to confront the fundamental question of what sex and gender truly are.
◆ Born in 1965 as the older of identical twin boys, he suffered irreversible damage to his penis at seven months of age due to a botched circumcision involving an electrically heated cauterizing tool. Anxious about his future quality of life and sexual function, his parents consulted psychologist John Money, who was well-known for his research on sexual development. Psychologist John Money
Money advised that raising the child as a girl would lead to a happier life. After undergoing an orchiectomy, the child was renamed Brenda. At the time, the view that "gender identity is formed by early environment" was gaining widespread acceptance, and Money was a leading figure in that school of thought. "Twins with a built-in comparison subject" also made them ideal candidates for verifying the theory. ◆ Money announced that the "reassignment" was proceeding smoothly, which bolstered the medical policy of early surgical intervention to align intersex infants with either male or female sex roles. *Intersex: People born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't fit the typical definitions of female or male (including chromosomes, gonads, and genitalia). The notion that "gender is flexible and can be reshaped through the proper environment and medical intervention" gained a certain level of support. ◆ However, the child's actual experience did not match the reports at all. From early childhood, Brenda did not strongly identify with typical female behaviors, preferring boyish toys and actions, and remained isolated at school. During adolescence, estrogen administration induced physical feminization, but the psychological discomfort was never resolved. ◆ Years later, it was revealed through testimony by David and his brother that therapy sessions had included acts where the twins were made to mimic sexual behaviors, drawing severe criticism over ethical violations. These details had not been initially disclosed and served to heavily undermine the evaluation of the case. ◆ At the age of 14, after his parents told him the truth about his birth, he decided to live as a man. He named himself David, and underwent testosterone treatment, a mastectomy, and phalloplasty. As an adult, he drifted through various jobs, married in 1990, and welcomed his wife's children as his own.
In 1997, he collaborated with sexologist Milton Diamond to make his experiences public. Through re-examinations in medical journals, news reports, and a published book, the narrative that had long been heralded as a "success story" was overturned. This disclosure served as a major catalyst for reviewing the standards for infant sex reassignment surgeries. ◆ In 2002, his brother passed away from a drug overdose, and in 2004, David took his own life at the age of 38. It has been reported that he visited his brother's grave every day, had lost his job, suffered financial losses from investments, and was separated from his wife. It remains uncertain how much influence was exerted by the deep-seated trauma that had pierced the core of his life for so many years.
Psychologist John Money passed away in 2006 without ever offering a public rebuttal. While he contributed to the development of sexology by leaving behind some 2,000 written works, his theories remain a subject of debate to this day. ◆ [Supplementary Note: The Circumstances Surrounding the End of the Experiment] As he approached adolescence, the mental state of David—who had been raised as Brenda—rapidly deteriorated. Although he had felt a sense of alienation from his surroundings since early childhood, as his body entered secondary puberty, the discrepancy became impossible to ignore. He clearly told his parents, "If you take me back to that doctor again, I will die." This was not mere rebellion, but an urgent statement so intense that his parents genuinely feared for his life. For parents who had spent years continuing to trust the judgment of experts, this moment came as a shock. They were finally forced to confront the unbridgeable chasm between the narrative they had been told—that "everything is going well"—and the reality of the child standing before them. The endocrinologist and psychiatrist in charge advised that continuing to hide the truth any longer was dangerous. And so, on March 14, 1980, when he had reached the age of 14, his father disclosed the accident at birth and all subsequent treatments. This confession marked the moment the experiment came to an end.
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