Choosing the sex of a child is wrong, even when nature brings ambigious biology

[Kendall]

Sex has variations. Intersexed is a natural occuring, not too uncommon result

1% of births thats 1 in 100 have some sort of sexual ambiguity
.1% to .018% thats 1 in 1000 to 50,000 births have some sort of intersexed in them that they normally do a surgery where they choose the sex based on their analysis in most cultures.

Intersexed even happens in nature among animals.

The only reason that a sex surgery is done is because of the current medical opinion that one of two sexes must be chosen based on social beliefs and pressures.

Not all societies chose sexes. A few cultures recognize nature as having a third sex.

Corrective surgery is generally not necessary for protection of life or health, but purely for aesthetic or social purposes. Unlike other aesthetic surgical procedures performed on infants, such as corrective surgery for a cleft palate, genital surgery may lead to negative consequences for sexual functioning in later life (such as loss of sensation in the genitals, or feelings of freakishness and unacceptability)

Many intersexed resent the medical community because of such actions. Some go through further surgeries to switch or even reclaim their right to be both.

       Here is a confession of even one pediatrician that literally created the textbook of doing such surgeries, that confessed regrets http://www.isna.org/node/107

       Such experiences such as this happen. Very sad http://www.salon.com/health/feature/1999/04/05/sex_police/.

       Here is  American Academy of Pediatrics: Evaluation of the Newborn With Developmental Anomalies of the External Genitalia http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics%3b106/1/138

       A july 4rth Article explaining the meeting of the AAP to make the policy above http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ffile%3D/chronicle/archive/2000/07/04/MN72774.DTL

Like Chase said in the july 4rth article

The key problem, she said, occurs when people decide that ``sexual ambiguity is shameful.''

Genderqueer is an acceptance that there is more than just the two isolated genders (and even sexes/anatomy) or that their shouldnt be any gender at all. Some genderqueers feel emotionally intersexed. Whether its just trying to promote intergender behavior, actions, roles; or dressing, living, being androgynous; or even pursuing such physical changes through hormones and surgeries.

I believe choosing the sex of the child and doing these things is wrong. The child should be allowed to grow up and choose what they want for themselves. And not have to go through mutilation without the child's choice, especially with functioning , non life threatening biologies.

[Casey]

"In some cases it's led to a human tragedy -- it might have been better not to reassign the sex of this particular child. But there are cases where it's clearly right to reassign," says Raymond Hintz, an endocrinologist and professor of pediatrics at Stanford University.

That quote published in the salon article makes me realize that I don't know enough to have an informed opinion regarding determining the sex of a child. When should it be done, and more importantly does a child even need to be determined as male or female? But I do know that we need to acknowledge that not all children are born textbook examples of male or female sex and that's OK. Perhaps it time to start lurking in the Intersexed forum.