Sex Change Logic and Plastic Surgery

In a recent New York Times op-ed by Andrea Long Chu, “My New Vagina Won't Make Me Happy,” the author discusses an upcoming vaginoplasty surgery that will create a “neo-vagina” where once there was none. This choice, to remove a healthy organ and replace it with an artificial organ that will require a lifetime of medical maintenance, was no doubt a difficult one. But Chu reveals that there is no reason to believe this surgery will result in happiness. The cosmetic, vaginoplasty surgery is neither medically necessary, nor intended to result in happiness on the part of the patient, yet it is still desired, still sought, and still scheduled.