Doubt As a Badge of Honor

Do No Harm’s efforts to expose the scandal of sex-trait modification in gender non-conforming minors are getting noticed. In a recent manuscript published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, authors Joanna Wuest and Briana Last identify Do No Harm, where I am director of research, as an “agent of scientific uncertainty” in discussions of the safety and efficacy of so-called gender-affirming care.

They intended the “agent of uncertainty” label as an insult, but we wear it as a badge of honor. Doubt is a bedrock of scientific inquiry, an essential tool to separate opinion from fact. As Wuest and Last see it, however, “medical and mental health associations across the globe have widely accepted gender affirming care for children and adolescents.” They seem to think that doubt—asking basic questions—is antithetical to science.

Read more on the City Journal.