Biomedical Ethics
Former U.S. Surgeon Generals Call For Moratorium on Medically Unnecessary Intersex Infant Surgeries!
In a stunning victory for intersex advocates, three former United States Surgeon Generals published a paper yesterday, titled “Re-Thinking Genital Surgeries on Intersex Infants,” which calls for a moratorium on performing medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children! The paper’s authors, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Dr. David Satcher, and Dr. Richard Carmona, the 15th, 16th and 17th…
Read MoreContesting Intersex Wins American Sociological Association Awards!
At the onset of it’s publication, we highly recommended the book Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis (NYU Press, 2015), by our colleague Dr. Georgiann Davis. Today, we congratulate Davis on her well deserved American Sociological Association’s Sex and Gender Distinguished Book Award and the American Sociological Association’s Sex and Gender Feminist Scholar-Activist Award! Contesting Intersex…
Read MorePortugal Seeks To Ban Sex Reassignment Surgeries on Intersex Infants!
As reported in the Gay Star News, as part of the discussion earlier today at the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT), celebrated on May 17th, Forum this week in Brussels, Portugal announced legislation aimed to ban medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex babies. Brava Portugal! If passed, Portugal will become the third country…
Read MoreDoctors Reevaluate “Disorders of Sex Development”!
“Based on their results, the authors recommend that the DSD term be updated through a collaborative effort between the medical, research and advocacy communities.” — from “Term ‘Disorders of Sex Development’ May Have Negative Impact” OII and OII-USA have advocated against the stigmatizing, harmful term “Disorders of Sex Development/DSD” since it was introduced in 2006,…
Read MoreIntersex Activists Draft Bill SB1342 to Protect Intersex Infants!
Mo Cortez, Koomah, and Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth have done something fantastic: Bill SB 1342! It’s a bill: “Relating to prohibiting nonconsensual genital surgery on certain minors with intersex traits.” See the following from The Houston Intersex Society on how you can get involved. It’s one of the first known Intersex protecting bills ever…
Read MoreGLMA Calls for Delay on Medically Unnecessary Surgeries on Intersex Children!
GLMA, Health Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality, formerly the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association, issued a statement today on care for intersex children (a.k.a. children with differences of sex development) calling for a delay in medically unnecessary surgeries until the child is old enough to decide for themselves what, if anything, they want to do. It…
Read MoreU.S. Includes Intersex People in Bans on Sex Discrimination in Federal Health Care!
On May 13th, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a 362-page rule on the Obamacare/Affordable Care Act’s Section 1557, the provision of the law which bans sex discrimination in health care, which included the statement: “… the prohibition on sex discrimination extends to discrimination on the basis of intersex traits or atypical sex characteristics.” This…
Read MoreIntersex People and The Quest For Justice in The Jurist
In this excellent article, “The Right Not To Be Mutilated: Intersex People and The Quest For Justice,” Arvind Narrain of ARC International outlines the medically unnecessary cosmetic genital surgeries and other medical treatments that intersex infants and minors are subjected to–which we also refer to as Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM), due to its similarities…
Read MoreViloria published in Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics
OII-USA E.D. Hida Viloria’s essay, “Promoting Health and Social Progress by Accepting and Depathologizing Benign Intersex Traits”, has been published in the Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics fall issue, which features a Narrative Symposium on Intersex. From the NIB website’s description of the symposium: What are the joys and heartaches faced by people diagnosed intersex? These symposium authors…
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