John Ronald Brown was an American surgeon who served the trans and gender diverse community. Brown’s career was dogged by legal troubles related to poor patient outcomes and deaths. Nicknamed “Butcher Brown” by the trans community, Brown was imprisoned for continuing to practice medicine after losing medical licensure.
Background
John Ronald Brown was born on July 14, 1922 and died in prison on May 16, 2010.
In the 1970s, Brown and partner James Spence were offering genital surgeries in San Francisco and planned a full-service clinic for medical gender transition, but those plans fell apart in 1973.
Transgender healthcare
Brown was one of the earliest surgeons to use an informed consent model, and many of Brown’s patients had been rejected by gender clinics with strict gatekeeping for trans healthcare. Brown also performed surgeries on patients seeking other kinds of body modification that colleagues would not perform. Many of Brown’s patients were desperate or poor, and they felt Brown was their best available option or only option.
Among other procedures, Brown offered orchiectomy, a crude vaginoplasty, and illegal silicone injections. Brown’s prices were often one-tenth of the cost of going elsewhere, and patients did not have to wait two years or more as was common at the time.
The quality of Brown’s results was generally considered unacceptable, earning Brown the nickname “Butcher Brown” among our community. Community-wide warnings about Brown’s dangerous practice were one of the most organized and unified examples of trans and gender diverse consumer activism in the 20th century.
Sanctions and convictions
In 1977, Brown’s medical license was revoked following the death of a patient, citing “gross negligence, incompetence and practicing unprofessional medicine in a manner which involved moral turpitude.” Brown then began illegally operating on patients in Mexico.
In 1990 Brown was convicted and imprisoned for practicing medicine without a license. Brown began performing illegal surgeries again following release.
In 1998, Brown performed an elective leg amputation for a patient who wished to have one leg removed. After the patient died from complications, Brown was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Brown died in prison from complications of pneumonia on May 16, 2010.
References
Cowan, Zagria (May 19, 2017) John Ronald Brown (1922 – 2010) surgeon – Part I https://zagria.blogspot.com/2017/05/john-ronald-brown-1922-2010-surgeon.html
Cowan, Zagria (May 19, 2017) John Ronald Brown: part II. https://zagria.blogspot.com/2017/05/john-ronald-brown-part-ii.html
Moore, Michelle. (2003, October). TG in history: Butcher John Ronald Brown. TG Community News, 19-24. http://dallasdenny.com/Writing/2013/11/01/butcher-john-ronald-brown-2002/
Ciotti, Paul (December 15, 1999). Why did he cut off that man’s leg? LA Weekly https://www.laweekly.com/why-did-he-cut-off-that-mans-leg/
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- John Ronald Brown
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ronald_Brown
Murderpedia (murderpedia.org)