A Moratorium on Intersex Surgeries?: Law, Science, Identity, and Bioethics at the Crossroads
18 Pages Posted: 6 Apr 2011 Last revised: 28 Apr 2011
Date Written: April 5, 2007
Abstract
Should the law prevent all parents and guardians from requesting and consenting to cosmetic genital surgeries on children with certain intersex conditions before the children are mature enough to decide the matter for themselves? While such surgeries ought not to be encouraged, banning the surgeries altogether, as some advocate, would hobble, if not eliminate, the burgeoning scientific investigation of the best treatment practices for different intersex conditions. It would also remove a surgical option that, according to data in a number of studies, has resulted in subjectively satisfactory outcomes for many patients.
Keywords: intersex, bioethics, children
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