In this episode, Sasha and Stella welcome Dr. Eithan Haim. With such a scarcity of voices from the surgical community chiming in on about their insights and reflections on gender-affirming care, Sasha and Stella were very eager to hear Dr. Haim share his compelling perspective on his experiences and obversations at a leading pediatric hospital in the United States.
Dr. Eithan Haim is the founder of Alliance for Medical Ethics, an organization founded to promote freedom of thought and truth in medicine regarding important ethical issues such as sex-change procedures on minors and COVID-19 policy. Dr. Haim is a general surgeon practicing in Texas, and recently completed his residency in General Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. During this time, he worked at the country’s most prestigious teaching hospitals, including Ben Taub County Hospital, Texas Children’s Hospital, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. He received multiple awards and distinctions for his professionalism and dedication to teaching.
This is a remarkable account of some relatively shocking circumstances surrounding transgender affirming pediatric medical care at Texas Children’s Hospital, Dr. Haim’s efforts to expose the truth, and the fallout in the aftermath of the City Journal article reporting the story. Ultimately, Eithan's journey as a whistleblower sheds light on the complexities and challenges within the realm of gender-affirming care and its tension with the ethical implications of the Hippocratic Oath (or contemporary iterations of it) sworn by medical physicians committing to do no harm and preserve the well-being of patients.
The conversation touches on the divergence in the philosophy of medicine, criticizing the shift from medicine's traditional goal of restoring natural physiology to what is seeming like an ideological pursuit of creating something new, leaning towards a transhumanist approach for super enhancement, and the temptation of radical technological advances. They explore the ethical dilemma in medical progress, balancing the tension between innovation and the preservation of health. Dr. Haim emphasizes the importance of humility in dealing with diseases and the potential dangers of losing sight of the core principles of medicine.
Resources & Links
Legal Defense Fund for Surgeon Whistleblower
Sex-Change Procedures at Texas Children’s Hospital Doctors said that they would stop such medical interventions. Whistleblower documents prove that they haven’t.
“They’re Wanting to Play God” A new whistleblower describes the horrors of “gender-affirming care” at Texas Children’s Hospital.
The Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt
151 - "These Doctors Have Forgotten the Meaning of Medicine" with Dr. Eithan Haim