The End for Lesbians?

A recent editorial in Newsweek chronicles and comments on a trend developing in hospitals among doctors who care for carrying women. Numerous doctors have taken to giving pregnant women dexamethasone, a steroid which dissuades the fetuses from developing “ambiguous genitalia,” a problem endemic to girls with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH). Maria New, a bioethicist at Mount Sinai Hosptial, is a proponent of this application of dexamethasone to prevent the effects of CAH and, according to some, lesbianism.

The target of this drug is the prevention of masculine physical traits in female fetuses, however some people, such as the author of this piece from the Huffin’ and Puffin’ Post, claim that this is essentially anti-lesbian genetic engineering. New argues that the adrogens that cause CAH

 can affect a woman’s sexual orientation, her interest in becoming a mother and housewife, her interest in traditionally masculine careers, and—in childhood—whether she plays with dolls or trucks.

The identity politics crowd is having a predictably queezy reaction to this practice, which New justifies as upholding the biological role of women. New’s justification, to the Left, effronts their understanding of gender roles, which is identity politics do not really exist: men can act as women and women as men, both literally and figuratively; New calls this cross between gender roles “abnormal,” a denomination sure to assign her continual iration from the left. The article goes on to call use of dexamethasone an “almost desperate attempt by some doctors and scientists to keep their patients from straying from gender norms,” but this commentary misses the real question about use of the steroid.

As the Newsweek article points out in the first few paragraphs, the media’s reception of this exercise does not really correspond to its purpose, however I think—bombastic whimpering from the Huffin’ and Puffin’ Post aside—everyone can agree that there are some ethical questions that accompany this medicating method: should pregnant women and their fetuses be used as testing grounds for gender or sexual identity research? The medical knowledge of gender roles and the causes of sexual deviances is remarkably scarce in our times but this is probably not the appropriate place for researching the matter, lest the left become more paranoid of the plot by evil straight people to make all people biologically similar a la “Brave New World” (sarcasm alert!).

There are some other legitimate concerns not covered in the Newsweek article that should be considered. For instance: if lesbians are extirpated from society, what will happen to the porn industry?