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

Suggested Citation

Hermer, Laura D., A Moratorium on Intersex Surgeries?: Law, Science, Identity, and Bioethics at the Crossroads (April 5, 2007). Cardozo Women's Law Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, p. 255, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1803296

Laura D. Hermer (Contact Author)

Mitchell Hamline School of Law ( email )

875 Summit Ave.
Saint Paul, MN 55105
United States

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