SEX CHANGE AT AGE 17
A judge has provoked controversy in Australia by ruling that a 12-year-old girl could begin the first phase of a sex change.
The unnamed girl has begun hormone treatment to block puberty after a judge accepted an application from her mother for her to begin to reassign her gender.
A family court judgment said it was important to act quickly to prevent the onset of puberty as the girl dreaded the prospect of menstruation and developing breasts, and had threatened self-harm.
It was reported yesterday that during a hearing in December, the court heard that the girl from Victoria had thought of herself as a boy since the age of four. Several medical experts, including a psychiatrist, backed her application for a sex change.
The judge said that while the initial treatment was reversible, it needed to be seen as the first step in a process which, if continued, would allow the girl to live as a man.
"In my view, and on all the evidence, the treatment is in [the child's] best interests," the judgment said.
Further court applications will have to be made if the child wants to take the process further. Surgery to remove her womb and ovaries or construct a penis cannot be performed before the age of 18.
The head of the Australian Medical Association said it was a decision that would not have been taken lightly.
"It is a case-by-case instance. Maturity, intellectual ability, understanding, competency, are things that doctors assess very carefully," said Dr Rosanna Capolingua.
But the child's father bitterly opposed the decision, in part because of his daughter's young age, the court was told.
A medical ethicist, Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini, said the decision was astounding. "Twelve is a time of great uncertainty for a young person ... I would question whether the medical evidence supports treating [her] in this way."
(Daily Telegraph)
ramrali19
Early the bettr.If the father and mother of a family considers to gt changed their child's gender; for the reason to have a ratio of equality in male and female children in their family,let them be permitted to have their own choice.The born baby may be still more younger than age of 12 will be better.;If it could be done in mother's womb it will be more holds good.That type of science has to be developed and that type of ju-dgements have to be given.The child is taking birth without her sence (knowing or un-knowing)so,there is no need to ask her or him.Who knows? the child in the womb in the form of zygote too may be knowing or may could tell-then ask the zygote and then change the sex as per that zygote's feeling.This is all concerned with the Rules and Regulations framed in a society and also the morals framed.