What's the right thing to do can get complicated

[kengr]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/magazine/24intersexkids.html

There are some things in there that are good, there are things that make you want to shake people.

Comments

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Or deny them a parenting license.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Doctors who mess with a kid's genitals cuz they look different need to have their medical license revoked.

[kengr]

I wanted to ask the one who said it was ok to remove the clitoris if it bothered the parents if that also applied to "female circumcision".

Alas, the only way I can think of wording a law that would *work* for this sort of thing would also make it illegal for Jews to circumcise their male babies.

Because to allow that and forbid this gets into the insanely subjective area of the difference between "impair function", and "noticeably impair function".

[kengr]

You *really* don't want to go there. Consider what Bush & co would be doing if there were "parenting licenses"....

What's needed is two things:

1. the medical profession has to agree to ban all genital operations not needed to *restore* functionality (a lot of intersex conditions *do* need surgery to correct things like improperly placed urethral opening, multiple urethral openins, and some things having to do with tissues not being sure if they are labia of a scrotum) may not be performed without the *patient's* consent.

2. *Society* needs to learn and accept that "male" and "female" are not absolutes. Nor are they necessarily even mutually exclusive. And I'm talking about sex, not gender.

As I mention in another reply, #1 has the problem that any *enforcable* riules about #1 (ie ones that docs can't weasel out of) will also ban circumcision. Which will be de facto discrimination against all Jewish parents (and Islamic ones as well).

Do note that the so-called "female circumcision" practice by some Muslim is *not* required by the Koran or the Hadith, it's a "local custom" that has attached itself to Islam.

But circumsizing male babies is *required* by both the torah and the Koran.

<sigh>

I supose an exception could be made allowing for the removal of the prepuce (aka foreskin),clitoral hood or analagous tissues. There are actually a few versions of the "female circumcision" that really *are* just removing the hood.

Educating society is just mnot going to happen fast. Especially in the current "religious" climate.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Let them get the circumcision at a later date?

[kengr]

It's requirted to be within a certain number of days of birth.

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Well it's simple then... make an exception in the law for male circumcision (and ONLY for circumcision).