''Treatment'' of Intersex Children as a Special Medical Procedure

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O'Dwyer, Skye
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2017
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In Australia each year intersex children undergo invasive, identity-affecting, life-changing medical procedures. While some of these procedures are essential to save the child’s life, most are simply to ensure that the intersex child’s genitals are philologically either male or female. This article argues that this practice is wrong for the following reasons: these procedures should be recognised as Special Medical Procedures that require the oversight of the Family Court; psycho-social motivation, based on a binary conception of sex, is outdated and discriminatory; and the Family Court does not approve this sort of invasive surgery when asked to do so for transgender teens. Medical practitioners who perform these operations on intersex children expose themselves to criminal and civil liability. The best approach is to leave intersex children’s bodies alone and allow them to make decisions about their sexual morphology when they attain competence.

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Journal of Law and Medicine

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24

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© 2017 Thomson Reuters. This article was first published by Thomson Reuters in the Journal of Law and Medicine and should be cited as Skye O’Dwyer, ''Treatment'' of Intersex Children as a Special Medical Procedure, (2017) 24 JLM 870. For all subscription inquiries please phone, from Australia: 1300 304 195, from Overseas: +61 2 8587 7980 or online at legal.thomsonreuters.com.au/search. The official PDF version of this article can also be purchased separately from Thomson Reuters at http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/subscribe-or-purchase.

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Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified

Medical and Health Sciences

Law and Legal Studies

Philosophy and Religious Studies

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