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Department considers allowing 'sex changes' without requiring surgery
By Wei Yi-chia and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, The Taipei Times
Sun, Sep 16, 2012
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2012/09/16/2003542872 (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2012/09/16/2003542872)
The possibility of loosening regulations defining transsexual people is being considered after the Presidential Office's Human Rights Consultation Committee said a panel of experts would be invited to discuss the feasibility of such a move, the Department of Health said.
During a recent meeting with the committee, a human rights organization proposed that Taiwan follow the US and European countries in loosening regulations so that a person may be legally defined as the gender they identify as.
Bureau of Medical Affairs Director-General Shih Chung-liang said that previously, those who wished to become transsexual in the eyes of the law had to complete a psychiatric assessment and diagnosis by doctors and a sex-change operation.
In 2008, the regulations were loosened so that as long as a person underwent the surgical removal of their ovaries or penis and testicles, they would be assigned a new gender and begin life as a transsexual, he said. The new proposal would eliminate the need for any such surgery.
The department said it would discuss the proposal.
Some doctors specializing in sex reassignment surgeries have expressed reservations about the proposed measure, saying it could lead to difficulties defining transsexuals.