Ban Intersex Surgery for Children: Yes or No?
February 18, 2019 at 10:21 am
(This post was last modified: February 18, 2019 at 10:52 am by GrandizerII.)
What do you guys think? Should all surgeries done on intersex children to make them genitally "normal" be banned? Yes or no? What is your reasoning?
I definitely say they should be banned. It's shameful that in this day and age, in this so-called "civilized" world we're still giving parents the right to let doctors mutilate children's genitals for the satisfaction of their parents. Male infant circumcision is bad enough as it is but is mild compared to what intersex children have to go through. I was watching an episode on Netflix that was about this topic. In some cases, the penis is basically chopped off and the flesh molded to form/complete the vagina and thereby forced to be a girl without their consent. It's disgusting, and many doctors continue to encourage and actually agree with this.
But then we have people arguing that it's a bad idea to ban these surgeries because banning is never a good thing and can only lead to further problems. But considering the traumatic effects these surgeries cause to a significant number of intersex children, I can hardly see how banning would make things worse. Keep in mind these surgeries are done more than once and on children aware enough to see what's going on, and they get to have no say in the matter a lot of the time.
ETA: To be clear, I am talking only about non-consensual, medically unnecessary surgeries, of course.
I definitely say they should be banned. It's shameful that in this day and age, in this so-called "civilized" world we're still giving parents the right to let doctors mutilate children's genitals for the satisfaction of their parents. Male infant circumcision is bad enough as it is but is mild compared to what intersex children have to go through. I was watching an episode on Netflix that was about this topic. In some cases, the penis is basically chopped off and the flesh molded to form/complete the vagina and thereby forced to be a girl without their consent. It's disgusting, and many doctors continue to encourage and actually agree with this.
But then we have people arguing that it's a bad idea to ban these surgeries because banning is never a good thing and can only lead to further problems. But considering the traumatic effects these surgeries cause to a significant number of intersex children, I can hardly see how banning would make things worse. Keep in mind these surgeries are done more than once and on children aware enough to see what's going on, and they get to have no say in the matter a lot of the time.
ETA: To be clear, I am talking only about non-consensual, medically unnecessary surgeries, of course.
