A BOY WITHOUT A PENIS

THE EXPERTS HAD IT ALL WRONG, SAYS THE BELEAGUERED SURVIVOR OF A LANDMARK 1960S SEX-CHANGE OPERATION

He was one of a set of infant twin boys when, in 1963, his penis was damaged beyond repair by a circumcision that went awry. After seeking expert advice at Johns Hopkins Medical School, the parents decided that the child's best shot at a normal life was as an anatomically correct woman. The baby was castrated, and surgeons fashioned a kind of vagina out of the remaining tissue. When "she" grew older, hormone treatments would complete the transformation from boy to girl.

The case became a landmark in the annals of sex research, living proof of the prevailing theory of the...

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