As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl – The Riveting New York Times Bestseller About Medical Arrogance and Personal Triumph (P.S.)

I can't even begin to do justice to reviewing this book, but I will try. It is THAT good -- and yet I am conflicted because how can I call such a painful true story, "good"? I suppose my answer to this dilemma is this. It is good because the truth has been revealed and hopefully this will save another child, another sibling, another family from going through such a tragic experience because of an egregious medical mistake that resulted in a physical injury and caused two young parents to be led to make a life-changing decision. It is good because family secrets generally are not. This true story involves a young couple who marry and give birth to twin boys. Months after their birth, the baby boys have some trouble passing urine and it is recommended that circumcision will take care of the problem. Baby Bruce, is randomly selected by a nurse to be first to have the surgical procedure. The doctor on duty that day is not the one who normally does the surgery for some reason but still, being a doctor, the procedure is expected to proceed normally. It doesn't. The baby is put under anesthesia and the doctor uses an electrical cauterizing surgical tool. When it doesn't appear to be turned up enough the doctor turns it higher and ends up burning the infant's penis to a crisp. The baby is rushed to the burn unit for care and ultimately the penis dries up and breaks off. Later, a doctor who works at John Hopkins convinces the young parents that the best solution is to keep it a secret, and raise Bruce as a girl. Bruce is then called Brenda and raised as such but she is awkward, doesn't find dolls, dresses and bows to feel right despite her parents and that obsessed and inappropriate doctor's best efforts. Eventually, Brenda learns WHY she has always felt "different" and in adolescence, begins to live life as David. I won't spoil the book by revealing more but I will say it's heart-wrenching and well worth the time. The author did a phenomenal job interviewing David and his family, his doctors, etc with extreme sensitivity and respect! And David showed tremendous courage in telling his story publicly in order to potentially help others.

I have been reading John Colapinto's book for the last few days: a suspenseful, agonizingly heart-rending and gut-wrenching page-turner about a young man who underwent appalling suffering throughout a misery-plagued life. What was subsequently done to Bruce/David Reimer as a result of a botched circumcision that was unnecessary in the first place (more conservative treatment would have remedied his phimosis) compounded exponentially what was already a horribly tragic accident. Bad choices by doctors and his parents were piled on more erroneous choices (all for the wrong-headed purpose of so-called "converting" him into a "girl"), which David only found himself later having to undo -- and only partially successfully (he committed suicide in 2004 in his late thirties after earlier attempts from which he was rescued in his twenties). To me, the medical lesson is that when a mistake occurs, the parents and doctors should do their best to reverse just that single mistake -- not compound it with further immoral deeds involving additional deliberate mutilations beyond the original accidental mutilation. Two wrongs don't make a right; in fact, they immensely complicate what is already a terrible situation. I hope both David and his tormented twin brother Brian (who was evidently driven to suicide two years before David) are finally happy in Heaven, and I pray for both of them. I also thank Mr. Colapinto for writing this important book: an object lesson on the harm that is done to innocent people by the arrogance of doctors who play God.

The book "As Nature Made Him" is a very interesting read overall and it totally caught me by surprise and was not what I expected to read about at all. The book tells a true story of the horrible tragedy of a young boy, caught in one of the most obscure medically documented mishaps in today's modern society. Non-the-less, the book is a very interesting read overall and very well written in my opinion. The fact that the book is based upon a very real dramatic true story, always adds a bit of excitement and a chance to look at the story from a real world perspective, because it is not a fiction novel but rather a heart wrenching tragedy in modern medical history.

Such a sad story - all the worse for being true. My heart went out to this boy, and all along I was hoping for a better outcome - even though I knew the story. A family torn apart by one man's narcism. On the weird times we live in, this is a must read.

Purtroppo questa povera creatura è stata sottoposta ad un esperimento disumano, quasi nazista per la sua crudeltà, purtroppo la fine è tragica ed è un monito per ognuno di noi.

This is very well written, yet the details are disturbing to read. This book highlights that specialists/experts are fallible.

This should be a required reading in all the schools. How one evil man changed the whole game. and we are still plagued by this thoughts and now his thoughts are not just his but has been received and venerated by our so called scientists and doctors and therapists and what not. Another book that you should definitely read is "Lost in Trans Nation" by Miriam Grossman.

This book greatly increased my knowledge on the subject; not just in a scientific but a very human way. My heart aches for David Reimer and I pray he rests in peace. This book like a great many others also draws attention to the degree of hypocrisy in academic with John Money a case in point. This book is a trail blazer.