The
outgoing health minister has decided that health insurers no longer have to pay
for a controversial therapy intended to ‘cure’ gay people as provided by the
Christian organisation 'Different'.
In her
letter to parliament, Health Minister Edith Schippers argues that when
Christians suffer psychologically because of homosexual feelings, this does not
mean they have a psychiatric disorder. In the absence of a disorder, there is
no justification for psychiatric treatment.
The
minister writes that Different is entitled to provide pastoral counselling to
patients who experience their homosexual feelings as a burden, but such
counselling should not be covered by any health insurance.
Early this
year, parliament was up in arms when it learned that Different was trying to
'cure' homosexuals and that health insurers were obligated to pay for the
treatment.
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| (Photo: Alexandria) |
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Dr. Robert L. Spitzer is a major architect of the modern
classification of mental disorders. (Alex di Suvero for The
New York Times)
|
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| Jeremy Marks: 'I began to think that perhaps we’d got it really wrong.' Photograph: Lydia Goldblatt for the Guardian |
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