A doctor told a 22-month-old boy’s parents to raise him as a girl after a medical accident. 14 years later, he found out the truth — and it destroyed him

A surgical accident in infancy and a researcher’s experiment turned David Reimer‘s story into a cautionary tale that reshaped medical ethics forever.

In 1965, in Winnipeg, Canada, twin boys Bruce and Brian Reimer were born healthy to Janet and Ron Reimer. But at seven months old, a circumcision procedure using an electrocautery needle went disastrously wrong. It burned Bruce’s penis, leaving his parents desperate for guidance. So, they turned to Dr. John Money in 1967, a prominent psychologist at Johns Hopkins University.