Hon. Ron
Liepert
Minister of
Health and Wellness
#323
Legislature Building
10800–97
Avenue
Edmonton, AB T5K
2B6
5 May 2009
Dear Mr.
Liepert:
I write in
response to media reports that Alberta plans to delist sex
reassignment surgery as a benefit of Alberta’s health care system. I
believe that health care is a basic right of every Canadian, and I believe that
that includes transsexuals. I believe that Canadians have the right to
appropriate health care for relieving the distress associated with major
depression and with surviving trauma, and I believe that Canadians have the
right to appropriate health care for the distress associated with
transsexualism.
No type of
psychotherapy has been effective in relieving what can be lifelong anguish from gender
dysphoria, the psychiatric term for extreme discontent with the sex
one is born as. Research conducted throughout the world, however,
has repeatedly demonstrated the effectiveness of surgical sex reassignment in
relieving that distress in medically indicated cases.
No one chooses
to have gender dysphoria. The only “choices” confronting transsexual
individuals are whether to endure a lifetime of frustration and misery, to kill
themselves, or to risk—and often lose—their families, friends, and job in hopes
of finding a happier life as their new sex. To remove the final
option from these individuals and their physicians is to remove the universal from
universal health care.
Sincerely
yours,
Dr. James M.
Cantor
Psychologist
Psychologist
