Posted on 02/18/2005 5:05:50 PM PST by nyg4168
Doctors urged not to operate on infants with unclear gender
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
When in doubt (years after the fact) don't ask!
Some huge percentage of intergender children are male without fully formed male genitalia. I had a client who when through three operations by the time he was four. I saw the pix of him in the hospital and by the time he had had his third operation, he was no longer the happy toddler. BUT he had the requisite equipment. wow. such pain in this world. I did the paternity case forcing his bio father to not only pay for his college but encouraging, thanks to a wonderful judge, a relationship with a father he had never known.
The past handling of such cases has been idiocy. The idea that you can change a boy into a girl just by mutilating him & giving him some hormones is about the most repugnant thing in recent medical science, aside from abortion.
Jamie Lee Curtis would have made a terrible man. It looks like they guessed correctly.
And the part in this story about the woman who was mistakenly raised as a boy, then had to go through changing her identity, and now she can't get married to a man because Texas won't change her birth certificate? Talk getting kicked while your down. Poor woman. I hope some good lawyer in Texas volunteers to help her out.
I just get the feeling there is more of an agenda in this research than meets the eye.
Yeah, it's ridiculous that an error on your birth certificate can't be corrected.
I get the same feeling.
Not so rare that it's unknown in FReeperdom, though. I know someone who was born intersex.
David Reimer is a classic example of what happens when a boy is raised a girl. It's a truly sad story.
One in 4000 births, I just googled it.
Out of 280 million, that would be 7 thousand, if I've done my math right, here in the US.
Or maybe 70,000?
I'm trying to do it in my head...I think 70,000 is right.
More like 70,000.
Yes, you're right, of course. See my post right above your correction.
Back when they first started doing sex change operations this is the only case I could support it for. I do think mistakes were/are made when a decision is made at birth. I think in the past it was made more to make the child look normal and shield them. I would think they would be able to determine the sex fairly early in life. But I'm not sure what criteria is used to do so. I'm sure corrective surgery isn't a pleasant thing but it would be better than being trapped in an opposite sex body.
How about the idea that you can change a girl into a boy just by leaving her in a body with 'boy' parts?
It is very simple. The doctors should do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING until the kid grows up and figures out what he or she is or if they are happy just the way they are. Guessing with a knife and hormones and parents' selfish wishes leads to absolute disaster.
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