A book about the Sistine Chapel eunuchs

[mike (imported)]

Sorry, it wasn't my intention to be at all negative about your comment. It was more about how our language and culture can so easily lock us into certain modes of thinking, and undermine other modes, and exploring the long-term results of those limitations. Every time every one of us communicate, we are being manipulated on that level.

However you meant the comment to be understood, in a medical/clinical context, treatment is the response to illness, not the response to wellness, so the reader might get that wrong impression. But I certainly agree that the person involved needs to make the final decision about their own body. We always need to empower all human beings, not make decisions for them.

And by the way, I've never been "gone," but just lurking. This is just the first time I've posted in a while, and I've been on a new computer, so the nosey little programming was unable to find the cookie/snitch!

Mike good to see you back. I’ve always enjoyed your comments. My use of “treatment” is from the meaning of to subject to some process, action, or change. Treatment certainly does not always imply “improvement,” only “change.”

Adults (physicians, parents, grandparents) might thing that giving androgens to a hypogonadal boy results in “improvement,” but I certainly think that the boy would need to be involved in any decision. Though peer pressure would probably argue for as much androgen as his doctor would allow in most (but certanly not all) cases.