When I ask my medical students to describe their image of a woman who elects to birth with a midwife rather than with an obstetrician, they generally describe a woman who wears long cotton skirts, braids her hair, eats only… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
Many medical students, like most American patients, confuse science and technology. They think that what it means to be a scientific doctor is to bring to bear the maximum amount of technology on any given patient. And this makes them… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
You want a child who never makes you anything but proud? Please. Don't bother taking on parenthood if you can't handle the fact that… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
Regardless of the cultural system, social pressure to appear straight seems to be fairly intense cross-culturally. Indeed, one is inclined to wonder, if being… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
Fact-checking doesn't exist primarily because some of us are liars and cheats. It exists because writers will be writers, much as they may mean… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
We don't really know where human sexual orientations come from yet. What we do know is that the evidence we have that sexual orientation… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
Using medicine in the service of cosmesis is generally bad for patients, bad for doctors, and bad for democracy. The only exceptions are when… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
Doctors are human animals. They want to be loved, they are tribal, they instinctually favor stories over scientific evidence, they make mistakes, and even… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
If we have a situation where a man is particularly graceful in a sport that rewards grace - say, for example, figure skating -… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
So many times I've heard people say that the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples won't really change anything other than some… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
Instead of constantly enhancing the norm - forever upping the ante of the 'normal' with new technologies - we should work on enhancing the… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
A hospital may spend several million dollars separating a pair of conjoined twins even though that separation is likely to leave them worse off. — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
A democratic medical establishment does not alter people's bodies to fit regressive social norms; it advocates for patients by demanding the social body get… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
We now know that sex is complicated enough that we have to admit nature doesn't draw the line for us between male and female,… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
The safety argument against steroids may be a good one, but let's be honest. It isn't the one that motivates most officials and fans… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
Doctors and scientists, being part of that two-sex culture, have done everything they can to try to force people who are in-between into one… — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
Surely, sport is not fundamentally about the safety of athletes. If it were, we'd probably have to ban professional football, right after boxing. — Alice Dreger Copy Share Image
