Medical school suspends study that would have tortured transgender people for science

A controversial study on transgender people’s neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has been suspended due to ethical concerns that the participants could face harm from the study itself.

Dr. Jamie Feusner, the principal investigator in the study, has paused the National Institute of Health-backed study to get more input from transgender people and “understand their concerns more deeply and have a dialogue about the study’s objectives.”

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The study, according to reports of people who participated in focus groups to help researchers construct it, was supposed to be about the effects of gender dysphoria on a person’s brain.

Gender dysphoria is the medical term for the distress a person feels because their gender identity doesn’t align with their sex assigned at birth. The experience is psychologically painful and associated with depression, anxiety, social isolation, and an increased risk of suicide attempts.

The Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior study was going to trigger gender dysphoria in participants and then use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan their brains to better understand the condition.

“This study’s stated purpose is to trigger ‘gender dysphoria’ by…

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