Sex change ops make me feel ill (Daily Mail)
Sex change ops make me feel illWHEN the National Health Service was set up, it had one clear, fundamental objective: to provide healthcare, free at the point of use, to everyone in this country. The idea was that no one ever again would suffer or die because they were unable to afford medical treatment. Half a century later, growing expectations, greatly increased longevity and the soaring price of medical technology have put the NHS under great strain. Though we are a prosperous country with a high standard of living, we would rather spend money on holidays and booze than on healthcare. In the NHS’s cash-strapped state, this week’s ruling that it must provide free sex-change operations is the last thing it needs. An estimated 4,000 people who have no life-threatening complaints are preparing to snatch £40 million of NHS money to gratify their desire to change gender. THE Government, if necessary, must pass an Act of Parliament to prevent such a shocking abuse of the NHS’s precious resources. These people are sick only by their definition: to me, they are a bunch of sad, confused, attention-seeking men and women who wish the State to pay for their self-indulgence. No sane society could possibly sanction spending money on such unnecessary procedures when 500 people a year are dying before they get to the end of the six-month queue for heart bypass operations. That transsexuals think their cause is as legitimate as these matters of life and death shows how selfish they are. Nor did they help their cause when one of their spokesmen told the Today programme yesterday that having this treatment was no different from the NHS treating pregnant women, because pregnancy was not an illness either. The North-West Lancashire Health Authority, against whom the judgment was made, must appeal against it, for the good of the whole NHS. It should go without saying that the Government must support them. Health Secretary Frank Dobson is already battling with the courts over his refusal to sanction the prescription of Viagra: this case is just as important, and for similar reasons. If somebody wants to violate nature by changing sex, they should pay for it out of their own pockets, in the same way as somebody who wishes to recapture his failing youth by taking a wonder pill. The NHS is there, primarily, to promote health. This is why millions of taxpayers willingly pay their taxes to sustain it. If the service stops being about health and starts being about a free ride for people who need medical help to fulfil a lifestyle choice, it will risk losing what little public confidence it still commands. Copyright © 1999, Daily Mail | ||||||||
