(Caution: Potentially disturbing content below.)

No matter how crazy things get in the United States (and they are getting very crazy indeed), all you generally need to do is look to the north and you'll find something even crazier in Canada. That seems to be the case when it comes to the ongoing transgender craze that's been sweeping across North America. We have people signing up for gender-bending surgical procedures and other treatments everywhere you look in the United States. But at least thus far, they've all been fairly similar. Men ask doctors to castrate them, remove their penis, and create an artificial vagina. Women request mastectomies and the creation of a fake penis. Most of us probably try not to imagine the details too vividly. But one male patient in Canada is attempting to venture into uncharted territory. He wants to keep his penis intact, but have an artificial vagina added as well. But because of Canada's government-funded healthcare system, he's going to have to convince a court to pay for the procedure. (National Post)

In a lengthy legal battle that could lead to more requests for individually customized and unorthodox gender-affirming surgeries, an Ontario resident is seeking publicly funded surgery to construct a vagina while preserving the penis.

The case, now before the courts, reflects a small but growing demand for niche surgeries for people who identify as non-binary, meaning neither exclusively female nor exclusively male.

To critics, the procedures are risky experiments that illustrate “how far off the rails” gender-affirming medicine has gone and the excesses of “consumer-driven gender embodiment.”

“Our public health-care system is at the breaking point and really needs to focus on procedures that are medically necessary,” Pamela Buffone, founder of the parents’ group Canadian Gender Report, said in an email to the National Post.

It's difficult to even know where to begin with this story. Clearly, there are some people who are taking the concept of "nonbinary" much too far. While I find it impossible to mentally put myself in the position of gender-confused individuals, I can almost understand why someone might seek to have their original "equipment" removed and have an artificial replacement of the opposite gender installed. That might make you superficially resemble the gender you want to be rather than the one you were born into.

But what precisely is this Canadian patient trying to achieve? If this is successfully done he won't wind up looking like a man or a woman. He will resemble what we used to refer to as a hermaphrodite before that term somehow came to be thought of as derogatory. I am informed that we are now supposed to refer to them as intersex. This occurs in nature in both animals and plants, though it's typically very rare. When it happens in humans, doctors have traditionally consulted with the parents after the child is born and they decide which gender to keep and the issue is addressed surgically.

But now it's 2024 and the world has been turned upside down. We have people who want to have radical, experimental surgical procedures performed on them to give them the appearance of being intersex. But it's only an appearance. The person's new "equipment" will never be functional. We don't have that type of technology. (Surprisingly, true hermaphrodites have functional reproductive systems in many instances and there have been eleven recorded cases of pregnancy taking place as a result.)

Adding insult to injury, the Canadian patient wants his fellow citizens to foot the bill for what is expected to be a very expensive experiment. Even if this didn't sound completely insane - which it does - aren't there more pressing concerns for the Canadian healthcare system to address? The representative from Canadian Gender Report quoted in the excerpt above asked the correct question. Is this really healthcare? The patient will not be healthier as a result and will almost certainly require follow-up surgeries and other procedures for the rest of his life, further soaking up resources needed by legitimately ill or injured patients. 

Amazingly, this isn't the first request of this sort that the courts have reviewed. Last year, a female patient asked to have a penis added without her vagina being removed. The Ontario Health Ministry declined to approve coverage for that surgery as well. So it's a mad, mad world at this point. You can all toss out your 2024 Bingo cards because nobody saw all of this craziness coming.