http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/womans-depression-over-botched-sex-change-leads-belgian-authorities-to-auth
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/03/mother-of-belgian-man-euthanized-after-botched-sex-change-feels-no-sorrow-no-doubt-or-remorse/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/10346616/Belgian-killed-by-euthanasia-after-a-botched-sex-change-operation.html
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/in-the-line-of-fire/41250-what-the-sex-change-industry-doesn-t-tell-youThe details:
A 44-year-old man/woman sought euthanasia due to "incurable, unbearable [psychological] suffering." This suffering began since childhood, when Nancy's mother, who remained anonymous, would emotionally and verbally abuse Nancy. She told reports, "When I saw 'Nancy' for the first time, my dream was shattered. She was so ugly. I had a phantom birth. Her death does not bother me. [...] For me, this chapter is closed. Her death does not bother me. I feel no sorrow, no doubt or remorse. We never had a bond."
"I was the girl that nobody wanted," Mr./Ms. Verhelst told a local newspaper hours before death. "I was ready to celebrate my new birth. But when I looked in the mirror, I was disgusted with myself. My new breasts did not match my expectations and my new penis had symptoms of rejection. I do not want to be... a monster. "
Dr. Wim Distelmans, who has conducted other euthanasia operations in the past, said, "There are other factors that meant he was in a situation with incurable, unbearable suffering. Unbearable suffering for euthanasia can be both physical and psychological. This was a case that clearly met the conditions demanded by the law. Nathan underwent counseling for six months."
Nevertheless, Jacqueline Herremans, a lawyer assigned to evaluate euthanasia cases, commented, "This case seems to meet the requirements of the law. But I do not yet have all the elements to say it with perfect certainty. [...] This is a case of conscience, a situation that raises questions. There is no immediate answer. It should begin a long process to understand."
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What used to be called sex-change therapy but was later renamed sex-reassignment therapy and now most recently is beginning to be called sex-realignment therapy reflects one of many possibilities that open up to humans due to their ability to form signs. Euthanasia--what is a happy death?
What does it mean to have "incurable" suffering? Or "unbearable"?
Why is it that most of the comments on articles having to do with transgender issues are by people who themselves are transgender?
The answer is simple: there is something that strikes a nerve, something that prompts one to respond, to defend oneself against "falsehood, lies, propaganda, bad journalism, prejudice, hatred, bigotry," etc. Reality strikes at the heart of the structure that we have created for ourselves that constitutes our identity.
When our identity is in our hands, we typically reduce it to an image, and an image is meant to be seen as such. Mr./Ms. Verhelst "looked in the mirror" and was disgusted with herself. She knew deep down that no matter what she did or how she looked, her mother would never accept her. Because sex has taken on such powerful cultural signification, we ascribe mystical and magical realities to it. We believe that if we control sex, we control everything, even our destinies. Freedom of sex is freedom itself. But sex really is a simple biological process for the biological purpose of procreation. Any further meaning we ascribe to it comes from our capacity as rational, sign-creating creatures. Yes, its unitive aspect, aside from the biological order, pertains mostly to what it symbolizes to us, and therefore, the question becomes what is "it"?
One can fill a word "it" with anything. But deep realities are not the same as curtains covering emptiness. A mystery is a fullness that must be accepted, not an emptiness to be swapped with whatever would make us comfortable with it. The Sacraments are mysteries.
When our identity is an object, we must make sure that the object is acceptable, even pleasing, to the Other. This acceptability is the simple reason why most transgendered people can continue happily with their lives following sex-reassignment surgery (SRS)--many live in environments that are mainly supportive of their decisions. Those with post-surgery regret often come from backgrounds of severe abuse and/or live in environments of deep discrimination.
But just because we feel good about our identity--which follows from its apparently being accepted by the Other--doesn't mean everything is right.
Ultimately, our sign structures, our words, come up against the Word. Judgment is the revelation of Truth and the scattering of the darkness we can so easily create when left to ourselves. What will Judgment reveal?
Isn't that why we hate being judged? It's because every judgment, whether true or false, in its very structure as a judgment foreshadows the final revelation of Truth on Judgment Day that is so unbearable to us. Saints were unconcerned with the judgment of others because they realized that God's judgment alone would truly reveal the sinfulness that they dreaded and the goodness that they so loved. This truth behind judgment is one but reveals itself in principally two respects. The truth is God, and therefore its two respects are: God's goodness in itself and our ugliness in itself.
That is the boogyman under the bed, the skeleton in the closet, the elephant in the room, the monster in the mirror: it is the truth we hide by our lies, by our self-constructed identities.
What good is it to be a Christian who apparently worships God rightly when the rest of that person's life is in disorder? No, to worship rightly is to worship in order, and this doesn't truly happen until we are Saints, the kind of person who, when objectified, reveals Christ alone: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). The Saint is unconcerned with his image because that image is Christ, in whose image he is fashioned, and his life reveals Christ in every respect.
Therefore, we pray at Compline: "Into Your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit." That is, we surrender our self-constructions to the Father who knows us better than we know ourselves and is closer to us than we are to ourselves (cf. St. Augustine, Confessions, 3.6.11; Literal Commentary on Genesis, 5.16.34). This self-surrender moves us into a new way of being, the right way of being, that is indifferent to gender and embraces sexuality in its mystery and fullness and sometimes its ambiguity.
A happy death (euthanasia) is the death of the Saint: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, I am thy servant; I am thy servant, the son of thy handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord" (Ps. 116:15-17).
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