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I can't figure out whether I've (a) lived too long, (b) I'm nuts, or (c) civilization, as we know it, is over. |
Posted on 02/18/2005 3:09:21 PM PST by srm913
It's the first question new parents hear: girl or boy? But hundreds of babies are born each year where the gender isn't clear. Prompt surgery to assign one was once the norm.
But gender depends on more than anatomy or hormones. It also seems to stem from the very earliest brain development, researchers said Friday in urging doctors to hold off on the knife until children can determine their own sex.
"To discover who or what a child is ... you have to ask them," Dr. William Reiner of the Oklahoma University Health Science Center told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
"There is no one biological parameter that clearly defines sex," added Dr. Eric Vilain of the University of California, Los Angeles, whose research suggests gender is genetically hard-wired into the brain before birth — regardless of which genitalia develop.
The issue is "intersex," the name for numerous conditions that result in roughly one in 4,000 babies born with both male and female traits.
One of the more common is congenital adrenal hyperplasia. In such cases, genetic girls with XX chromosomes are exposed in the womb to such high levels of androgen — the hormone that triggers male development — that they appear male externally even if they have female reproductive organs. A different condition leaves genetic males less responsive to androgen during development, so they're born without a penis.
The parents must pick a gender somehow, to know what to call their child and because gender is required on a birth certificate. So specialists check non-obvious factors such as which sex chromosomes the child has and levels of sex hormones in the blood.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I saw a show on this on Discovery (I think) and years ago, they would surgically assign all such children as females, the surgery was easier. many such children were interviewed as adults and many of them felt themselves to be males who had been "therapeutically" castrated. It was a very sad and depressing story. The young adults interviewed all claimed that they wished they had never had any surgery except the one case where there was a serious urinary defect.
This is not a political issue, there are intersexed people born every day
I had a cousin with a cleft palate; she had 12 operations to repair it and the facial problems.
That's a mere physical problem, and is easily fixed. Gender identity is a mental problem; far worse to correct.
Empathy is a sign of a healthy person, right?
Yes, I think so. Her favorite performer is Tammy Wynette who sang something about standing next your man.
It seems to me that the conservative position on gender differences is that even the ones which are not merely anatomical are natural. And if they're natural then they will be subject to the same errors that other natural features are. So that these sorts of things happen should surprise no one.
That's a mere physical problem, and is easily fixed. Gender identity is a mental problem; far worse to correct.
This article is discussing physical problems, not mental.
No it isn't a political issue but holding off on surgery would in itself be distressing. I have been on a delivery where the infant had ambiguous genitalia and it was distressing to the parents to say the least. I can only imagine how confusing it would be to tell a 3 year old "we don't know what you are".
That's why this is such a difficult conundrum, unlike any other physical deformity. Gender is so central to the human experience. As you said, you can't really hold off on surgery and tell a 3-year-old "we don't know what you are yet". But it's also risky to assign a gender that later turns out to be "wrong". Very difficult situation.
I can only quote the people so affected and relate their message to the eager surgeons, basically it was "you had no right to maim me". It's hard to argue with it.
Don't care... everything seemed to work out right.
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I can't figure out whether I've (a) lived too long, (b) I'm nuts, or (c) civilization, as we know it, is over. |
" I can't figure out whether I've (a) lived too long, (b) I'm nuts, or (c) civilization, as we know it, is over.
"
good. it's not just me.
remember when the difference between boys and girls was that girls had long hair ?
poor kids today.
I don't think you understand. There is, of course, a mental component to gender. When a baby is born without clearly defined genitalia, the Dr's usually decide to make the baby be female. Some of these children grow up and insist they feel like men.
Physically normal people who insist they are the wrong sex are mentally ill. People whose physical sexual development was compromised, leaving Dr's to choose which gender they will be, are an entirely different issue.
good. it's not just me.
remember when the difference between boys and girls was that girls had long hair ?
poor kids today.
This is not some new-fangled hip thang the kids today have dreamed up. These kinds of abnormalities, like many others, have probably been around forever. You were just unaware of it.
Please tell me you forgot your sarcasm tag....
This follows the mistaken logic that a woman is nothing more than a man without a penis. But there's obviously more to it than that.
I simply don't believe that environment is a major determinant of gender. A disabled child might grow up pessimistic, but I can't really believe that my parents could have convinced me I was male simply by thinking it was so and acting as though it was.
Scientifically speaking, a person's sex is determined at the cellular level, and is indicated by whether the cells have two X chromosomes or an X and a Y.
If a baby is born damaged or has other problems like hormonal imbalances, that may cause problems. But you really can't make a man into a woman or a woman into a man.
Sex change operations on physically healthy individuals are extremely questionable, and probably should be outlawed. Sex change operations on damaged babies are more understandable and arguable, but are probably also a mistake. They are well intended but are unlikely to solve the problem.
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