Here it goes the first article.
It's a discussion about if genital surgery should be performed when an intersex child is born or when he/she becomes old enough to decide which is the sex with the one he/she identifies him/herself.
As you may know, physicians, psychologists and parents meet together when a kid with non-clearly defined genitalia is born. They talk about pro and contras of a genital surgery and try to decide which sex will the newborn be.
In my opinion, it is really important to let the child grow. We should let him/her decide which will be his/her sex. Otherwise, we can make the wrong decision and there's no need to make him/her go through the situation of having a sex he/she does not identify with. I understand the social problems that come with the fact that we will have a different kid. For example, if our neighbor asks: "Is it a girl or a boy?"; how would we call him/her?; what will the other children say if they notice that his/her genitalia are different?; will he/she be happy this way?.... I barely know how would I react, but the important point for me in this discussion is: who are we to decide the gender identity of a person? Even if it's our son/daughter! If we fail, we will be the culpable of condemning him/her to a biological identity that does not fill with his/her way of viewing him/herself.
I know it's difficult, but as far as I see it, changing each intersex newborn is just a way to make him/her fit into what our society defines as "normal". We should stop doing it, we should all be more open minded and accept that we are not just men and women. There's people who aren't identified yet with one of this two sexes and there's people that will never identify with any of them. They identify themselves just with that label which says "others", and as soon as we accept them, we will do things much easier for all of us.
I would like to know what do you guys think about this, and if you liked the topic I've chosen. Please leave your comments below and feel free to express your own point of view.
Carlota Pujol Gost.
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/why-are-doctors-still-performing-genital-surgery-on-infants
This is a issue really controversial because many newborns suffer some kind of genital abnormality. Studies found that 1 out of 200 child is born with atypical genital, so it is not such an unusual situation. But this issue, as many other sexual identity issues, has been hidden throughout history by society. That is the reason why parents and some doctors want to make the genitals look more “normal” and finally they choose surgery.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, this surgeries should be an option just in some special cases where a ethical committee evaluates that there is a vital risk. But, the vast majority of surgery should wait until the child grow up and have a real autonomy to decide if they are a girl or a boy, or even it could be some cases where the child doesn't want surgery, it could be the case of “gender fluid” who is a person that may feel like a mix of the two traditional genders. Maybe, because of that some scientists believe that early intervention could help avoid gender identity confusion.
In conclusion, I think that if it's possible, the boy or the girl should grow up before go through genital surgery.
Thank you Cristina for your answer. I didn't know that there was any theory which supported an early intervention to prevent some cases of gender identity confusion. Anyway, I think that gender identity should be opened and respect the existence of other identities besides women and men, I don't see why feeling like a mix of them or like none of them has to be a problem. I agree with your conclusion, there are no reasonable facts to support the early genital surgery, waiting seems to be the best option for now. Thanks Cristina.
DeleteI strongly believe that there are many reasons to affirm that genital reshaping surgery should not be done until an intersex person arrives to adolescence or adulthood and they can take part in the process. Firstly, this kind of surgery is irreversible therefore the gender assignment will be unchangeable. In this way, we can say neither doctors nor parents can choose the sex of the intersex newborn, this decision must be taken by the intersex person. Moreover, all surgeries involve risks (such us physical pain or lost sensation) and in many cases these consequences are not considered.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am not sure that the society would be prepared to admit intersex kids. Nowadays, the society has been educated to accept homosexual, bisexual and transsexual people but, unfortunately they still suffer bullying at school and high school and in most cases they are been excluded . So, if society can’t accept homosexual people yet, intersex people will face with a lot of integration problems. I don’t know what the best solution is but if I were one of this newborn I wouldn’t liketo grow up feeling different from the others children.
This is a good topic to discuss, Carlota!!
ReplyDeleteIf I'm honest, I've just asked to all the family questions about what are their views on this and the truth is that the opinios are not so varied. All of them always ending with the same conclusion: they think that genital surgery should be performed when an intersex child is born.
Perhaps it's an idyllic form , I guess I would also grow my son or daughter because he/she could be enough conscious and mature to decide what is the sex with which he/she feels most identified. The problem? The paren'ts fear that their child suffers discrimination bye the company or the same fear they will be judged negatively.
This causes that the child don't have the opportunity to decide for theirself.
It is very difficult to decide when we should do that genital surgery and I think each case is different, but if the person is in perfect state of health, I think that it is better to wait until the intersex person decides for itself.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that we can say that the sooner the genital surgery is done, perhaps the child will have a "normal" childhood, as she or he will be equal to the other childs and we could avoid her or him to future problems with bulling or that the child feels confused. However if we do the surgery early, it doesn’t mean that it will be the best decision for the intersex person or that we can protect them from the other people because in our present society all that are different is looked down upon socially and unconsciously we try to remove them. Although I don’t like to admit this, but our society isn’t prepare to accept intersex people like a “normal” person. When a baby is born, the first thing that we think is: is it a boy or a girl?; If we don’t know what sex she or he is: do we have to buy all in yellow? So it’s difficult to say that a intersex people will have a normal childhood when we live in a society that thinks all of us have to have a colour pink or blue.
I think it is not in our hands to decide which sex will be the best for someone if she or he has a perfect healthy. I think it would be better to wait until the person could decide for itself as it is she or he who will have to go throw the risks of the surgery and suffer the consequences, if they are, consequential to this genital surgery. I think that if we have family support and we don’t deal with fear about what other people might think, the child can grow up happy and without problems and then when she or he has enough knowledge, the intersex person can choose.
I've heard of intersex people but never heard of preforming genital surgery on children who are intersex. I appreciate that you have introduced this topic because I always enjoy learning something new. So, first of all, thank you Carlota.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the title of the post and its introduction I was thinking whether there is any possibility that someone could support the idea of performing genital surgery on children. Not letting the protagonist to decide about his/her own life looks kind of selfish to me. However, as soon as I finished reading, I was able to understand the other part of this dichotomy.
Even though it seems selfish that another person decides on what I consider one of the most important things in human nature, personal identity, I think that our society it's not prepared to this. And, sincerely, I don't know why, but I think it's true. Our society is more prepared to listen that there's life in the outer space than to listen that a kid doesn't identify him/herself neither with being a boy nor a girl. And notice that we are not talking about sexual identity, which nowadays is not yet accepted worldwide.
This problem goes beyond what we are used to and it should be treated delicately. Society is different in each country and some would be more prepared than others, but there is no society concerned about this condition and I think this is where the problem lies in.
As soon as we all are aware of the existence of this condition, people would start to understand intersex people and not to judge them and let them decide whenever they feel they have to decide.
Adrià
Thanks Carlota for bringing this topic up in our lovely blog.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all my opinion lays on our requirement of being well informed. I first wonder what's the prevalence of newborn children with intersex disorders.
The topic presents an ethical dilema that is not easy to solve. First of all the parental rights prevail over the child when he/she is not able to express an opinion, so if the parents want their child can undergo a surgery. The matter is that the physicians should present all the choices, like for example waiting until the kid's criteria is fully developed and can take a decision by themselves.
Should we wait for all the cases or just undergo surgery as soon as possible? I don't know much about this topic, but I think that this question should be based on strong evidence. Like for example the benefits and drawbacks of taking the surgery on such an early stage of life. In those I include either organic or mental impairment.
Ethics and medicine must embrace in an ongoing path that goes towards the future's patients well-being.
These kinds of subjects are never easy to discuss, it reminds us that there is no such thing as "black and white" in life. We all believe that the parents of intersex newborns have the best intentions and are thinking of their kids when they make the decision of surgically reshape the baby’s genitalia. However, as it has been said before, we are talking about choosing an identity for a person without knowing what that person will grow up to be.
ReplyDeleteSome of you compared these cases with the social acceptance problems of being homosexual, but I’d like to remind you that a person’s identity as little to do with their sexual orientation. Although I do agree that the world we live in is not ready to accept the difference, the change is made day by day and we are starting to see a difference in the way we treat the transgender community. I believe that a person’s identity goes beyond their anatomy, but I also think that a child knows how he/she feels a little before reaching adolescence. Therefore, even though not all cases are the same, I feel that the parents should wait until their kid finds out how he/she feels about him/her self and be honest and open about the options. Of course a 10 year-old is not mature enough to understand what it means to undergo a surgery, but it’s wise enough to know if he/she feels like a boy or a girl or simply doesn’t care. There’s never an easy (or right) answer and that is why these families should have guidance of doctors and psychologists to help them decide the best way to go.
Thank you for choosing this topic, Carlota. It is very interesting and we need to talk more and more about these subjects.
As we have all commented the post, it seems that it's time to close it. I'm going to resume everyone's opinion and then, conclude with my own point of view now that I have all your answers.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Cristina introduced the term "gender fluid" which refers to all that people who do not identify themselves with any of the two recognized options of gender. She comments that there are some scientists which support the idea that an early surgery could prevent for this kind of "confusion". As I personally do, Cristina doesn't agree with that and thinks that's better to wait until the person can make its own decision.
Second, Adela thinks that if she were an intersex person, she would have prefered to be operated as a child to prevent bullying from the other kids.
Third, Gemma tells us that she has asked to all her family to have different points of view and her conclusion seems to be the same as Adela's. She thinks that the fear of discrimnation is big enough to perform an early genital surgery.
Fourth, Adrià's comment has brought to our discussion some interesting points of view that, in my opinion, are worth to repeat. He starts being so concerned about the importance of letting a person choose about something as important as its own gender identity. But, as he says, he has understood the other point of view while reading the article.
Fifth, Peña talks about the issue of the information that physicians give and the importance of the clinical evidence to choose the best option.
Finally, Margarida comments the fact that the only way for society to accept new options, is to change it day a day.
In conclusion, I'm happy to see that my partners enjoyed the topic and the article. They made fantastic inputs and the feedback I received made me more openminded than I was before. Although I started the discussion concerned about the problem and having an strong point of view, now I can see that there are some things I hadn't thought before. As I see it, it is important to give the parents the best information to help them choose the best option for their kid. It is important to preserve the gender identity of a person and let it choose, but it is important to prevent childs to be discriminated. We need society to get used to all types of people and stop discrimination, but while we do it, it will be difficult for people who do not fit into what we define as "normal".