While I'm happy toes are being dipped into legal waters, I highly doubt this will change until social movement follows.
Many people still believe there is a gender binary, that there is only "male" or "female." I think trans is more accepted compared to those who biologically fall in between, as the trans person still technically fits themselves into the binary. There should be more social exploration into the spectrum of gender and the idea that yes, there can be more than two. That said, any change in the right direction is excellent to hear.
Lois Gould wrote a children's story about an intersexed child. I always think of it when these discussions come up.
For a brief introduction to intersex ethics, please read Making Sense Of Intersex: Changing Ethical Perspectives in Biomedicine.
"the medical community is still gripped by a mentality that favors fixing things over patient choice."
That's the crux of it, right there.
“Forcing children to be raised with ambiguous genitalia is really tough — that’s almost unethical.”
How is -- more or less -- arbitrarily choosing to remold someone's genitalia before they're even old enough to speak the more ethical choice here? In most cases our culture errs on the side of bodily autonomy. The only thing that makes this different is the cultural imperative to be either male or female overrules the individuals' agency over their own body. I guess medical ethics are still in their infancy. The Tuskeegee Syphilis experiments weren't that long ago.
And I might as well broach this thorny topic because it's relevant: as a non-Jewish person with a phallus, I wish I'd been given the choice of circumcision, instead of having the decision made for me at birth. Babies cannot consent to having their bodies permanently altered.
I don't see why this is a difficult topic, or why they're trying to push transgender issues on top of intersex issues.
Is there a problem with the genitalia that needs to be addressed in order to function without infection/disease/problems? If so, fix it. If not, leave it the fuck alone until the person can decide for themselves what they want done about it.
Same goes for any sort of medical stuff for children and infants. Is it critical that it needs to be done now? If so, do what you need to do to ensure the person can live. If not, wait until they can decide for themselves. Is that so hard?
If it's an issue like the individual mentioned in the article, just make a note of it in the medical records, in case some sex specific thing is to come up (do men/women/intersex get different treatments anyway?)
- “Forcing children to be raised with ambiguous genitalia is really tough — that’s almost unethical.”
Is it really?
- The complaint argues that the possible consequences of surgery — loss of sexual function, scarring, loss of male fertility, gender misassignment, and a potential lifetime of psychological distress — were minimized without considering the alternative of doing nothing at all.
That certainly sounds pretty unethical to me.