When should these surgical corrections be performed? Why? Be sure to consider the case from the point of view of the medical community, the parents, and the affected children who, under current practice, rarely have any say in what gender assignment is made for them.
Suggested completion date: October 24, 2008
Posts
18 comments:
EDDIE. PRATT
10/24/08
BIOTHICS-SCENARIO #7
If your child is born absolutely mud-ugly, you would love your child, and you would see the wondrous beauty God has created in them. Even more important, you don’t have to call your baby ‘son or girl’ Love your ‘dear one.’ As their ‘me’ begins to be revealed, that is the starting point for mainstreaming toward a gender identity, if any. Depending on the diagnosis, that procedure could begin under 4 year old or later. Do not rush to decisions for which your child will forever bear the consequences.
This is a much tougher question, because it's hard to take a stand on it. The primary concern is the welfare of the child, but what is best is not clear. To make informed consent the child needs to grow up and even go through puberty to adulthood. Which puberty will he go through and what kind of emotional scars is the child going to suffer by growing up with no sex determination? Kids are mean, they don't have the development to be understanding. The child would probably be an outcast and it would affect the child permanently. My personal decision would be, as the parent to make that choice for the child just as I would any other medical decision. I made the decision to have a child and must deal with all of the conseqences of that decision. I think it's better for the child to have normal social interaction during his or her formative years than to wait to make the child choose for him or herself.
Greg Dawson
I think surgical corrections should be made immediately. I think a child has enough to deal with when growing up. I don’t think a child should be raised without knowing what gender they are. I know there are cases where the child grows up as a girl and when the child gets older they say they feel like they should be a boy. For me it is no different than homosexuals changing their sex. If a surgical correction is made immediately at least the child can grow up knowing they are one gender and society will see them as that gender. I think it is pointless to wait for the child to grow up and then decide what sex they want to be. Both ways the child will probably end up going through a sex change operation. It’s not saving the child from surgery it’s saving the child from cruel people.
Amanda Rhoades
I believe that the surgical corrections shoudl be performed at an early age because of the socual implications. The senario mentions that adults that learned that the procedure had been performed o them felt betrayed and confused. What about the confusions that a young child and teenager would feel about growing up without a particular sexual identity to accociate themselves with, not to mention the fact that society is cruel and the child suffering from confusion and low seld-esteem because of the lack of social acceptance, I think that the procedure is justified. M Longtin
In response to Eddie:
The question of loving your child because they are different is not relative to me, but about doing the right thing for them. I personally would be concerned about what kind of social implications that the child would have and confusion during puberty without a particular sexual identity to agree with. This might be worthy of consideration.
MLongtin
I think that the surgery should be done as soon as possible. This will allow the parents to immediately “teach” themselves how they will raise their son/daughter. Also, as the article mentioned it will make them aware at an early age what their “learned role” should be. Our society is much too cruel and children do not have the mental capacity to think about how this child feels. The child would grow up as the freak at school and this would lead to far more psychiatric problems knowing that they are so much different from everyone else and not understanding why. If, as a parent, you make a decision and run with it your child would never know the difference, especially if you had the genetic testing done (XX or YY) to determine their actual sex. With that testing it should prove what the child was intended to be, and the parent should have no regrets. As always I think that honesty is the best policy. The parents should not keep this a secret, just as you should not keep it a secret if you have adopted your child. This will most likely alleviate problems within their relationship. If the child later in life decides that they think their parents may have made the wrong decision, we live in the day and age where a sex change is only a phone call away.
Kayla Parent
Eddie---
I dont think that loving your child is the point. Obviously you will love your child no matter what. But how should the parents choose to react to this particular situation? If you child was born this way, what would you do?
Kayla Parent
Kayla-
I completely agree with you. I too believe that getting the sex change done immediately will prevent the child from psychological damage.
Amanda Rhoades
Surgical corrections should be performed AFTER the affected children are aware of the situation and its consequence.
Less problematic transition is achievable for the children with loving family, with sensible protection, and with secure family environment.
It’s HIS or HER life, not the parent’s life. The affected children should have the choice whether to be He or She. Parents should not make haste decision. This is a serious decision which deserve the time for observation and mindful thinking.
I completely agree with the following assessment:
Medical ethicists have recently argued that, as intersexuality is seldom threatening to life or health, the surgery should be postponed until the person who will be most affected -- the intersexed individual -- can give autonomous consent. Moreover, autonomous consent requires a full explanation of burdens and benefits, the nature of which have yet to be determined.
JWK
Michelle Camping
11-15-2008
I fully support the surgery and making the child a boy or girl. I believe it to be in the best interest of the child. Life is confusing enough to add to it by waiting. I do think they should be told when the right time comes. I don't find it to be unethical at all to perform this proceedure. The person would be more a freak in others eyes if left till they can choose. They should look at it in the eyes of how bad people are to others who are just a little different. I know that we shouldn't do things on others opinion but lets face it we do and the world is hard.
Michelle Camping
11-15-2008
In regards to Eddie Pratt, I don't believe that it comes down to just loving them for being "dear one" But most kids don't understand boy-girl untill things really change with hormones. I wouldn't want to have both and be even more confused as a child. How would they dress one day a dress next day Spiderman. Not realistict!!! The best for the child is not just how mom and dad treat them but how everyone will. They would be made fun of they're hole life.
I believe that if all the proper tests have been done to determine what sex biologically the child most resembles, then it is OK to proceed with the surgery. I think that it is less traumatic to a child if the surgeries are done before there is any memory of them. I agree with the reasoning of the doctors, that waiting could traumatize the child more because they will know that they are very different than their friends and unfortunately the majority of our society is not open-minded enough to accept an inter-sexed child. And who is to say when a child is old enough to make the decision of what gender they want to be. Is a child going to grow up not really ever committing to being a girl or a boy, and when he/she turns 18 get the surgery that decides it. I understand that gender isn’t really just based on sex organs, but if the wrong decision was made about the child’s sex in the beginning, the child can change that later, instead of growing up without a specific genitalia and wondering why.
Erin
I think that opting for a sex for your child because you think that is what they might be or you would prefer a boy or a girl is wrong. I personally would choose to not do the surgery, raise my child as a child and let them find their own identity. You could put out girl things and boy things and let them decide for themselves. There have been more cases it seems like where these people are coming out saying they are definitely a boy or a girl but when they were born with both sex organs their parents choose one for them and they can tell it was not the right one. That could seriously mess a person up. If you are raised as one sex and can tell or come to find you feel like the other sex, that would be horrible. I believe before the child got to kindergarden even they should be able to find a gender for themselves. At that point that is what they would be (unless they felt different later on) but people in your community or anywhere have no business knowing anything that personal about your child. All they need to know is they are your child. People have so many prejudgmental thoughts on everyone when they shouldn't and have no right to. I certainly disagree with people choosing to do the surgery at a very young age because "society's thoughts". Who gives a damn, it is about your child and their feelings and thoughts. If they are self conscious about it, then they might be at an age where they can tell themselves what gender they feel they are and you can then made a decision to do something about it.
Commenting on G.Dawson
I agree with your side of what you said but what if you choose the wrong sex? What if you chose this surgery to save your child from social conflict and then later down the road you even realized (along with your child) that they "were" the wrong sex. Then what? They went through that much of their life being the wrong sex, growing up and other people knowing them as that other sex.
In this case you have to look at the dna composition and go from that. If shows a boy then go in that direction. This should ensure that the child is given the best opportunity to be "normal". I think no matter what the case the parents will still love their child just as they would if they were born normally. As for when the child grows up the parents could let him know but there is no reason why he/she should feel like an outkast. This is not the first case and it certainly won't be the last. the most people can do, if they even find out, is make fun of you. But really you should be able to take criticism because it can only make you stronger.
Joe King
In response to Greg
I agree that you can not wait till the child is at puberty to make this decision. He/she will face much more criticism before they ever get to that point in their lives. Not too mention why would you want to leave this decision up to a teenager. That is pretty much the time in your life where you learn everything the hard way.
Joe King
I believe that the corrections should be made ASAP. One because you do not want the child growing up and asking questions you cannot explain to them, and yes the sex should be choosen by if the child has XX or XY DNA. If you leave the child they way he or she is it could lead to many problems in the childs future.
Jennifer Faulkner
I think that the parents should be allowed to determine whether the baby should be male or female. They are the creators of the child and therefore I feel are entitled to rights of the child. At the same time it is the responsibility of the parent to ensure that the childs psychological needs and questions are met throughout childhood into adulthood so that when the time comes that the child is told of what has happen they would have formed a trust with parents and feel thankful not so much betrayed. Further more precautions should be made to ensure that the child is well taken care of as in the instance that they child has some sort of disease or sickness, in that parents with sick children go to extreme measures to ensure a heatlhy lifestyle.
Shundeen Cadman
Post a Comment