{"id":10444,"date":"2020-12-23T13:39:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T21:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=10444"},"modified":"2021-02-05T13:53:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T21:53:07","slug":"on-sex-and-gender-the-new-england-journal-of-medicine-has-abandoned-its-scientific-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=10444","title":{"rendered":"On Sex and Gender, The New England Journal of Medicine Has Abandoned Its Scientific Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quillette.com\/2020\/12\/23\/on-sex-and-gender-the-new-england-journal-of-medicine-has-abandoned-its-scientific-mission\/\">Quillette<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Colin Wright<a href=\"https:\/\/www.consciencelaws.org\/authors.aspx#Colin_Wright\">*<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Two years ago, &#8220;Titania McGrath,&#8221; whose satirical Twitter account regularly skewers the ideological excesses of social-justice culture, suggested that &#8220;we should remove biological sex from birth certificates altogether to prevent any more mistakes.&#8221; The joke (obvious to those who follow the culture wars closely, but perhaps obscure to those who don&#8217;t) was directed at gender activists who insist that male and female designations &#8220;assigned at birth&#8221; are misleading (and even dangerous), since they may misrepresent a person&#8217;s true &#8220;gender identity&#8221;\u2014that internally felt soul-like quality that supposedly transcends such superficial physical indicia as gonads and genitalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the line between satire and sincerity has become blurry on this issue. Last Thursday, the<em> New England Journal of Medicine<\/em> (<em>NEJM<\/em>), widely considered to be the world&#8217;s most prestigious medical journal, published an article entitled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMp2025974\"><em>Failed Assignments\u2014Rethinking Sex Designations on Birth Certificates<\/em><\/a>, arguing that (in the words of the abstract) &#8220;sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility, and they can be harmful for intersex and transgender people.&#8221; The resemblance to Titania McGrath&#8217;s 2018-era Twitter feed is uncanny. Two of the authors are doctors. The third, Jessica A. Clarke, is a law school professor who <a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3270298\">seeks to remake our legal system<\/a> so as to &#8220;recognize nonbinary gender identities or eliminate unnecessary legal sex classifications.&#8221; . . . <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consciencelaws.org\/background\/procedures\/body009.aspx\">Full Text<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quillette Colin Wright* Two years ago, &#8220;Titania McGrath,&#8221; whose satirical Twitter account regularly skewers the ideological excesses of social-justice culture, suggested that &#8220;we should remove biological sex from birth certificates altogether to prevent any more mistakes.&#8221; The joke (obvious to those who follow the culture wars closely, but perhaps obscure to those who don&#8217;t) was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=10444\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;On Sex and Gender, The New England Journal of Medicine Has Abandoned Its Scientific Mission&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2413,4,1092],"tags":[3975,3974],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-10444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-body-reconfiguration","category-commentary","category-science-2","tag-colin-wright","tag-transgenderism"],"yoast_head":"\r\n<title>On Sex and Gender, The New England Journal of Medicine Has Abandoned Its Scientific Mission - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sexual dimorphism is a real and timeless biological reality that cannot be dismissed as a mirage. On this point, the NEJM now reads as a plagiarized rehash of yesterday&#039;s farce.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.consciencelaws.org\/background\/procedures\/body009.aspx\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Sex and Gender, The New England Journal of Medicine Has Abandoned Its Scientific Mission - Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sexual dimorphism is a real and timeless biological reality that cannot be dismissed as a mirage. On this point, the NEJM now reads as a plagiarized rehash of yesterday&#039;s farce.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.consciencelaws.org\/background\/procedures\/body009.aspx\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ConscienceProject\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-23T21:39:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-05T21:53:07+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Project Administrator\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@consciencepro\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@consciencepro\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Project Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.consciencelaws.org\\\/background\\\/procedures\\\/body009.aspx#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=10444\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Project Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8634801dcca60ff6362f6b1bb2d778fa\"},\"headline\":\"On Sex and Gender, The New England Journal of Medicine Has Abandoned Its Scientific Mission\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-23T21:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-05T21:53:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=10444\"},\"wordCount\":237,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Colin Wright\",\"transgenderism\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Body reconfiguration\",\"Commentary\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.consciencelaws.org\\\/background\\\/procedures\\\/body009.aspx#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/?p=10444\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.consciencelaws.org\\\/background\\\/procedures\\\/body009.aspx\",\"name\":\"On Sex and Gender, The New England Journal of Medicine Has Abandoned Its Scientific Mission - Protection of Conscience Project News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.consciencelaws.org\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-23T21:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-05T21:53:07+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sexual dimorphism is a real and timeless biological reality that cannot be dismissed as a mirage. 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