The Daily Mail is reporting on the tragic death of Nancy "Nathan" Verhelst, who was permitted to have her life ended on the grounds of "unbearable psychological suffering" after an operation intended to complete her transformation into a man went wrong.
Nancy began her transformation in 2009 with hormone therapy followed by a mastectomy and another operation to construct male genitals on her body. The last surgery she received before her death did not produce the desired results.
"I was ready to celebrate my new birth. But when I looked in the mirror, I was disgusted with myself," she told Belgium's Het Laatse Neuws in the hours before her death.
She said that her surgical transformation "did not match my expectations" and her new genitalia were showing signs of rejection. "I do not want to be . . . a monster," she said.
She made the decision to end her life and found a willing physician to assist her. Wim Distelmans, the cancer specialist who shocked the world last year when he euthanized a pair of 45 year-old twins who were going blind, agreed to help Verhelst.
"The choice of Nathan Verhelst has nothing to do with fatigue of life," Dr. Distelmans told the Telegraph. "There are other factors that meant he was in a situation with incurable, unbearable suffering. Unbearable suffering for euthanasia can be both physical and psychological. This was a case that clearly met the conditions demanded by the law. Nathan underwent counseling for six months."
Verhelst's death is the first time someone in Belgium chose euthanasia after a sex-change; however, the suicide rate for transsexuals and those who have undergone gender reassignment surgery is very high with some suggesting the rate to be as high as 31 percent.
"Research we conducted a decade ago found there is huge uncertainty over whether changing someone's sex is a good or a bad thing," Chris Hyde, professor at the University of Exeter, who has studied the issues surrounding sex change operations, told the Mail.
"While no doubt great care is taken to ensure that appropriate patients undergo gender reassignment, there's still a large number of people who have the surgery but remain traumatized - often to the point of committing suicide."
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