As Nature Made Him

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “We should aspire to Colapinto's stellar journalist example: listening carefully to the circumstances of those who are different rather than demanding that they conform to our own.” —Washington Post The true story about the "twins case" and a riveting exploration of medical arrogance, misguided science, societal confusion, gender differences, and one man's ultimate triumph In 1967, after a twin baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment that would alter his gender. The case would become one of the most famous in modern medicine—and a total failure. The boy's uninjured brother, raised as a boy, provided to the experiment the perfect matched control. As Nature Made Him tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a male. Writing with uncommon intelligence, insight, and compassion, John Colapinto sets the historical and medical context for the case, exposing the thirty-year-long scientific feud between Dr. John Money and his fellow sex researcher, Dr. Milton Diamond—a rivalry over the nature/nurture debate whose very bitterness finally brought the truth to light.  A macabre tale of medical arrogance, it is first and foremost a human drama of one man's—and one family's—amazing survival in the face of terrible odds. This gripping biography uncovers: The Nature vs. Nurture Debate: The thirty-year scientific feud between two rival doctors whose battle over one boy’s identity changed our understanding of what it means to be male or female. A Question of Medical Ethics: The harrowing true story of a botched circumcision and the subsequent medical experiment on a developmentally normal child, reported for years as a stunning success. An Unforgettable Story of Survival: The human drama of David Reimer, the boy raised as a girl who, against all odds, reclaimed the life and identity that nature gave him. The Twins Case: How an identical twin brother, raised as a boy, provided the perfect ‘control’ for the experiment, creating a landmark case in the history of psychology.