End of blow for genital surgery on intersex children in Greece. Indeed, Parliament this Thursday, July 19, passed the law reforming assisted reproduction, preventing doctors from performing “sexual normalization” surgeries, the British news site reports. PinkNews.
have intersex people “physical or biological features, such as sexual anatomy, genitalia, hormonal function or chromosomal pattern, [qui] do not fit the conventional definitions of masculinity and femininity. These features can manifest at birth or later in life, often at puberty.”remembers the United Nations.
In many countries, including France, doctors have become accustomed to: “improve” intersex children of their physical or biological characteristics, even if these do not affect their physical or psychological health. “There is no need to ‘correct’ the bodies of intersex children: these children are perfect just the way they are! »adds the UN.
The Association of LGBT journalists, for its part, explains on its website:
(…) not all intersex people are operated on at birth. When this is the case, resort to surgery is not limited to a single procedure, but to a large number of invasive operations, not urgent or medically necessary, performed at an age when people cannot consent to them. Parents are often encouraged by doctors to operate on intersex children very early.
The associations regard these acts or medical acts as serious mutilations of healthy bodies. In addition, the organizations explain that the quasi-systematic nature of surgeries aimed at normalizing sex characteristics and hormone therapies keeps intersex people in a form of social taboo that tries to hide the existence of a group of people from society, and therefore avoids it. to respect it as such.
Prison sentences for doctors
In Greece, these operations are considered “mutilations” by specialized associations, so cannot be practiced by doctors, reports the British news agency Reuters.
The law stipulates that penalties (fines or even prison terms) will be imposed on doctors who perform surgery on children under 15.
Operations can be performed under certain conditions:
- if they meet an urgent need with regard to the health of the patient,
- if the request is made to the court by a young person, parent or guardian,
- if the request for surgery or hormonal treatment comes from a person older than 15 who can give consent
“This new bill is truly a historic moment for intersex children and the LGBTQI+ movement in Greece.”
Spokesperson of the Greek Parliament
as remembered PinkNewGreece is the fifth country in the world to ban operations on intersex children. In France, this struggle is supported and supported by various associations such as the Collectif Intersexs and Allié.es-OII France.