No to Suicide-Affirming Care

January 30, 2025

By Jim Towey

History will not be kind to how America watched and did nothing to stop the mutilation and sterilization of children by medical professionals, social engineers and others through so-called “gender-affirming care.”

President Trump’s executive order this week to restrict puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries for minors, said it all. “Across the country today,” he wrote, “medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.”

How many thousands of children who looked for protection from their fears and insecurities, instead found adults willing to permanently disable and disfigure them, rendering them infertile, depriving them permanently of sexual function, and inflicting upon them severe psychological damage through such “treatments.”  And all of this enterprise in “compassion for children” was part of a $2 billion racket, a conspiracy of Big Pharma, Big Medicine and others who profited by offering “gender-affirming care.”

The fight is not over

If you think that by a stroke of his pen, Trump has put an end to this practice, think again. As the courageous and prophetic Michael Schellenberger wrote:

“Trump’s executive order does not mean that the struggle to end gender-affirming care for minors is over. The practice is legal in 24 U.S. states, which may continue to provide coverage through state-level programs. In 16 states plus the District of Columbia, lawmakers have gone out of their way to create “shield” laws that protect the doctors and other medical professionals engaged in mutilating and sterilizing children from legal liability. And some states have gone further. In July 2024, California passed legislation that lets teachers hide children’s social ‘transition’ from their own parents.”

A false response

As I pondered the dynamics of this issue, my mind immediately recognized the parallels between it and the euthanasia/assisted-suicide movement. What we now have is a “suicide-affirming care” movement. It offers a false response to a real problem. People whose pain is poorly managed, who lack human accompaniment on their journey through illness, who want a sense of control about their end game, are its ripe targets. Ten states and the District of Columbia have made suicide-affirming care lawful and expect an upcoming wave of activity at the state level through voter referendums and legislative action to further broaden its appeal.

But of course, proponents face a problem. The word “suicide” has a history as old as human life. Suicide bears a stigma. And that is because human life is precious.

Life is precious

Look at our nation’s capital last night and today. Rescue boats racing to the scene and first responders wading into the freezing waters of the Potomac, to find if anyone survived the plane and helicopter crash. They do this to preserve life, and legions of police, firefighters, surgeons, NICU professionals and others across our land teach us regularly this same lesson – that we must care for life and do all we can to preserve it. Suicide is never a solution, regardless of its surface appeal and the immediate relief it might provide to some in certain situations.

The challenge before us is to improve care at the end-of-life and enhance patient self-determination rights without endorsing suicide or physician-assisted suicide. Canada uses “medical aid in dying” as the deceptive name for its legal scheme to hasten and cause death. MAID advocates don’t dare mention the “S” word. It is too toxic, just like how the words “mutilation” and “disfigurement” are avoided for transition surgery. Ironically, gender-affirming care justified its very existence by the alleged likelihood of patient suicide, if recourse to treatment were to be withheld.

Care means caring

Patients must be able to trust their physicians. The American Medical Association realizes that doctors should not kill their patients or help them kill themselves. Care means caring. I lived in a hospice for people with AIDS in the 1980’s and was around a great deal of suffering and death of the incurably ill.  I saw firsthand the appeal of suicide to end suffering and bring immediate closure. But we didn’t assist patients wanting to do that. Instead, we kept them clean, loved them, managed their pain, and assured them that their lives were a gift, not a burden to us.

How America’s health care system treats its dying needs an overhaul. If not, expect to hear more arguments in favor of what suicide-affirming care is. Soon enough you will be hearing from Big Death, and the money to be made or saved by it.  

Care isn’t care when death is intended by the caregivers. We have a long way to go to make end-of-life care uniformly caring in the United States. Let’s not wait and do nothing like we did when gender-affirming care began its deception campaign.

(The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Aging with Dignity and/or its Board of Directors.)