|
|
|
|
|
Sex AssignmentSex assignment refers to the assigning of sex at the birth of a baby. In 99.9% of births, a relative, midwife, or physician inspects the genitalia when the baby is delivered, sees ordinary male or female genitalia, and declares, "it's a girl" or "it's a boy" without hesitation or uncertainty. In nearly all cases, usually without conscious deliberation, the parents rear the child as a member of the assigned sex/gender. In most cases, this sex of rearing is concordant with the person's gender identity, but in the case of some transgender or intersex individuals, the gender identity may not match the sex of rearing. Sex assignment in cases of intersexualism In a small percentage of cases, at birth, sex assignment becomes a more protracted process of conscious decision, deliberation, and even negotiation by the parents (between 0.1% and 0.2% of live births). This typically occurs when the genitalia of the newborn infant appear ambiguous, or are distorted by a major birth defect. The process of assignment becomes "medicalized." In the past, the physicians involved were more conscious than the infant's parents that assignment in these cases may be less a matter of discerning what the infant is than deciding what the infant should become, though this way of thinking about assignment is repugnant to many parents; many parents, though, in the end follow doctor's advise. Intersex activists and a growing number of medical caregivers however criticise that practice, because many assignements that were based on which set of genitalia was easier to "build" (the female) had disasterous consequences when the person turned out to have a male gender identity after all. Cases where a person was assigned male sex but turned out to have a female gender identiy are somewhat rarer, since assignment as female was far more common, because "It is easier to make a hole than to build a pole." Such cases are known, though. A follow-up study One recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/350/4/333 for exampel describes the fate of 16 male children with a cloacal exstrophy, a severe birth defect also affecting the genitals. Of these 16 children, 14 were assigned female sex. All of these children show a distinctively male behaviour, none of those assigned female gender showed typical female behaviour, 6 of those reassigned to female have changed that assignment and live as males, some declaring their male gender identity spontanuous, the others after having been told about their intersex status, 3 are under significant presure to maintain their female gender role, but have repeatedly expressed a wish to be male, and only 5 seem to be content living as females, although none shows a markedly female behaviour. Sex reassignment is the term used when, in early infancy, parents and physicians decide to change the assigned sex/gender of an infant. The most common situation in which sex reassignment for infants occurs is when a more thorough evaluation of an infant with an apparently minor birth defect of the genitalia is discovered to have more of the internal characteristics of the sex not originally assigned. Corrective genital surgery is usually offered and accepted in these cases. However, there are few follow-up studies regarding the success of such reassignments, and those that exist often contradict the theory that gender identiy is independent of the sexual characteristics existing at birth, and can be changed through surgery and gender-appropriate rearing. David Reimer - the John/Joan case Probably the best known case of such a sex reassignment is David Reimer's story. After a botchered circumcision, through which he lost his penis, the parents, following John Money's advice, reared David Reimer as a girl. Money for years reported this reassignment to be a success, although David never showed "appropriate" female behaviour or gender identity, and changed to living as a man at the age of 14. Even after that, Money claimed that the reassignment in the"John/Joan" case had been successful. After David's story because public, Money refused to discuss this case. Sex (re-)assignment in transgender and transsexual people For transgender and transsexual people, the term sex reassignment is also used to describe surgery to align their body with their gender identity, and is usually performed in adulthood. This type of surgery is often termed sex reassignment surgery. See also External links
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|