TNJ4555

Today's (5/12/04) NY Times:

May 12, 2004
Man Raised As a Girl Commits Suicide
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:29 p.m. ET

TORONTO (AP) -- David Reimer, a Canadian who was born as a boy but raised as a girl after a botched circumcision, has committed suicide after failed investments drove him into poverty. He was 38.

Reimer died in Winnipeg, Manitoba on May 4, according to Canadian media reports. The family has not released the cause of death.

Friends said an anguished Reimer had told them he had lost at least $47,500 last year in a shady pro golf shop investment.

Reimer gained fame in the mid-1990s when he went public with his ordeal. It was published in the book ``As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised a Girl'' by John Colapinto.

The boy's experiences prompted medical experts in recent years to rethink once accepted wisdom on treating sexual identity cases.

When he was eight months old in 1965, a routine circumcision at a Winnipeg hospital went horribly wrong when a general practitioner filled in for the regular surgeon and seared the boy's penis with an electric cauterizing machine.

His penis was so badly burnt that it eventually fell off. His parents sought advice from Dr. John Money, a sex researcher at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Md.

Attempting to prove that gender depends on how a child is raised rather than genetics, Money advocated removing the rest of the male genitalia and prescribing female hormones.

Brenda, as he was known, was 15 when he found out about the mishap and rejected further treatment as a girl. He underwent surgery to remove his breasts and to construct a penis from muscle tissue and cartilage.

Changing his name to David, he eventually married and led a quiet life working at low-paying jobs in Winnipeg.

Colapinto's book brought in money but acquaintances said Reimer was always struggling to make ends meet. Members of the Transcona Golf Club where he had worked once collected several hundred dollars so he could feed his family and staff gave him leftovers from the club restaurant.

The final misfortune was losing his savings last year in the golf shop deal, friends said.

The Manitoba Securities Commission warned potential investors last November that ``your money may be at risk'' if it was placed with shop owner Gary Perch.

Reimer is survived by his wife, Jane, and two adopted children.

Averett

I remember hearing about that story... Too bad

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Asuka{eve}

i give a moment of silence to this man.

elpha

jesus... that sucks, he lived through so much, and made a life for himself.... only die becaue of money

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la petite moi

So sad.

k1ng

No matter how bad you may think your life sucks, there is always someone out there who wwould love to trade lives with you.

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moonstrucksoul

I too, remember hearing about his life last year. shame he took it.

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Lord Humungus

yea his life sucked and he got dealt a bad hand. we all have our sob stories. i dont feel sad for him at all. i think hes a selfish ahole. i feel sorry for his wife and kids.

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maleficent

The two don't go together, 47K is a lot of money, (if you were :just getting by" why on earth would you take that amount of money and invest it" This some "get rich quick" scheme that he got taken in on? If someone is going to be that stupid with money, then they honestly deserve to lose it. You invest that much money, you'd thoroughly investigate it.

That doesn't change that he ended his problem, however his wife and children are left to go on and pick up the pieces, suicide, is the ultimate selfish act anyone can do, he gets no sympathy.

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PredeconInferno

How sad. The person in question just wanted to live a normal damn life... turns out the doctors office really fucked him over on that one.

This kinda irritates me.

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Xiangsu

Poor bastard, thats like the saddest story I ever read.

DownwardSpiral

Wow, poor guy, after all he had been through, that's a shame there.

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carrot glace

he lived a strange life but he managed well enough, its too bad he made such a stupid investment, i suppose not having enough money to live normally is sad but commiting suicide and leaving behind a family that loves you is just stupid. i hope that his family makes it through this and the children arent too affected to live on normally through the rest of their lives.

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Luki

I concur, if you are going to bail on your family after a financial problem then you are a coward and an asshole.

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