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Catholic Hospital Offers Breast Implants to "Transsexual" Patient

Seton medical center reverses prior refusal for surgery

By Michael Baggot

DALY CITY, CA, March 6, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Seton Medical Center has announced that it will allow "transsexuals" to receive breast implants after previously refusing to perform such surgeries, due to its Catholic identity. 

In 2006, Charlene Hastings, the "transsexual" who requested breast implants from Seton, indicated that a surgical coordinator had told him that his request was "not God's will," and that "God made you a man."

A 2006 Seton Medical Center memo to physicians stated that "transgender procedures or procedures that are part of the transgendering process may not be performed at Seton, as Seton is a Catholic Hospital."

Hastings filled a suit against the hospital, alleging that it had violated state laws against discrimination. 

In a February 27 message to CBS 5, the hospital apologized for "any confusion that may have come from this situation," and insisted that Hastings and his physician are "welcome at Seton Medical Center."

Seton continues to prohibit "sex-reversal" surgeries.

The Catholic World News service reported in 2003 that a Vatican document was released that insisted that "sex-change" operations did not actually change the gender of the person.  Pastors were told not to change the gender listed on a "transgendered" person's sacramental record. 

According to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith document, "transsexual" surgery brings about a bodily change but cannot alter gender.

The CDF document was originally released in 2000 to papal delegates and later to the heads of episcopal conferences.  It indicated that those who had undergone "sex-change" operations could not be validly married, ordained to the priesthood, or admitted to religious life. 

Paragraph 2333 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out."

Read about the Vatican's stance on "sex-change" operations:
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=19829

Contact Daly City's Bishop about Seton's New Position:
Archbishop George H. Niederauer, D.D, Ph.D
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco
One Peter Yorke Way
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 614-5500

Contact the Papal Nuncio to the US about Seton's New Position:
Archbishop Pietro Sambi
3339 Mass Ave NW
Washington DC 20008
(202)-541-3000

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