Riddle: Who Is The Surgeon?

I remember a riddle from the 1970’s sitcom “All In The Family.” It went something like this: A man and his son were in a car accident. They were both rendered unconscious and taken to the hospital. In the ER, it was determined that the boy needed surgery. So they took him into the operating room, and presently the surgeon entered. Upon seeing the boy, the surgeon said, “I can’t operate on this boy. He is my son.” So who is the surgeon?

I think many younger people would find it hard to believe that this actually stumped anyone forty years ago, but it did. Some speculated that the father had regained consciousness. Others thought that the surgeon was the boy’s stepfather and the man who was in the car accident was his biological father, or the other way around. Back then it was hard for many to imagine that the surgeon could be the boy’s mother. The mere thought of that was not only unimaginable but frightening to many. Some thought our society was headed in a dangerous direction. Many thought feminists were evil people out to destroy civilization, and they weren’t afraid to say so.

All these years later, we still have plenty of sexists around to be sure, but the idea of a female surgeon, or lawyer, or CEO, or president just isn’t that hard to imagine anymore. Our society changed, and most of us wouldn’t return to the days when it was almost unthinkable for a woman to be a surgeon even if we could.

Now our society is going through another change, and we could dust off that riddle and reuse it to illustrate this. That’s because now there is another legitimate answer. The surgeon may not be the boy’s mother, or his step-father, or the man who was in the car accident with him. The surgeon could be the boy’s OTHER father and the partner of the man who was in the car accident along with their son.

The prospect of a gay couple raising the boy is unthinkable and scary to some, but others realize it’s no big deal. Hopefully by the time 2050 rolls around, our society will have gotten past this new bend in that old riddle and the idea of two people of the same sex getting married and raising a family together won’t be so shocking or threatening anymore.