Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00080)

Not only are some surgeries done without anesthesia, but infants that 
have had vaginoplasties (surgically created vaginas) must have 
their 'vaginas' 'dialated' with a stint for several hours a day and 
this horror continues all the time they are growing up ! 

This is done to xx girl babies with vaginal agenesis. It is also 
done to xy boy babies with penises under the big-enough size on 
the 'phallometer', and boys with no penis / penial agenesis. (see my 
Report Index on this). It has long been the standard practice to do 
sex change surgery on these boy babies who do not have a phallus, or 
a 'big enough' phallus to please the SURGEONS' idea of a male. Such 
unfortunate boys have routinely had their testicles removed and a 
vaginoplasty. Assigned 'female' they then are raised as girls. When 
puberty comes they are given female hormones to develope breasts 
etc. As unimaginable as this seems, it has long been the standard 
treatment for penial agenesis and micro-penis. Now due to pressure 
from the intersex rights groups, this practice is being challenged 
and a new standard of treatment is emerging. Surgeon-advocates of 
the old school are vehemently opposed to allowing these intersexed 
vagina-less or penis-less babies to escape the knife and stint and 
grow up 'imperfect' but healthy and happy as different but still very 
lovable human beings. 

Since babies can't defend themselves against this, adult intersex 
persons are fighting to get laws passed to protect the right-to-live 
of intersexed infants. Besides the agenesis conditions, there are 
many conditions where both a penis and vagina sre present. In these 
cases the child is routinely castrated as raised as a girl. Dr. 
Dreger and other medical ethicists have looked at why this is so. 

It seems that surgeons prefer to 'make girls' out of all intersexed 
infants. There are a large number of very angry castrated people 
around who grew up to want their penis, which was removed without 
their consent as an infant.

If these facts shock the readers here, please become an activist and 
get educated and become part of the solution. help to sign petitions 
etc. to get these insane inhumane practices stopped. 

BA G 
--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Steve Stubbs <stevestubbs@y...>" 
<stevestubbs@y...> wrote:
> Just amazing. I had no idea this was going on. One thing that I 
did 
> know that most people do not is that when physicians decide to do a 
> surgery on an infant, they do it WITHOUT ANESTHESIA. What a way to 
> come into the world, eh? Adults who had surgeries as infants 
without 
> the benefit of anesthesia bear the psychological scars from that 
into 
> adulthood, as one can imagine.
> 
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Bhakti Ananda Goswami 
> <bhakti.eohn@v...>" <bhakti.eohn@v...> wrote:
> > Dear Steve,
> > 
> > Thanks for your response.
> > 
> > There is in fact a huge global medical ethics debate going on 
> > regarding the prevalent and increasing existence and the 
> > proper 'treatment' of intersexed persons. In my Sex 
> Differentiation 
> > report (see my Topical Index), I list some of the most common 
forms 
> > of animal and same mechanism-related forms of human intersex. One 
> of 
> > the most troubling medical ethics issues involved is the standard 
> > performance of sex-change surgery on intersexed infants and very 
> > young children. The doctors guessing what a child's sex and 
gender 
> > identity is force THEIR choice surgically on the child. Because 
> they 
> > are often WRONG, this condemns the child to a life of physical 
and 
> > social misery. The intersexed persons' rights movement is 
> demanding 
> > that this be stopped, and intersexed people be allowed to exist, 
> and 
> > to chose their own sex assignment when they are old enough to do 
> so. 
> > 
> > Parents who have refused to allow doctors to perform these 
> surgeries 
> > on their intersexed babies, have had their babies legally taken 
> away 
> > from them by courts, acting as the agents of the doctors who want 
> to 
> > do the surgeries! 
> > 
> > So it is a fact that at present globally the medical profession 
is 
> > philosophically, legally and financially committed to and 
invested 
> in 
> > surgically forcing everyone into either a male or female 
appearance 
> > shortly after birth. This surgical choice OF THE DOCTORS is then 
> > reinforced by a lifetime of hormonal therapy. Intersex activists 
> are 
> > saying that if they are otherwise healthy babies, this surgical 
> > assignment of male or female sex should not be forced on them by 
> the 
> > medical establishment. 
> > 
> > One of the problems is that it is impossible to draw a simple 
line 
> > between normal male intersex and normal female. All chromosomal 
or 
> > hormonal or hormonally induced structural defects or deviations 
> from 
> > the reproductive norm are in fact forms (mild to severe) of 
> intersex. 
> > 
> > Intersex states exist when there is a chromosomal, hormonal, 
> > neuroendocrinological or other variation or imperfect 
> differentiation 
> > or formation / completion of the male or female reproductive 
> system. 
> > some of these anatomical imperfections are so common, that they 
are 
> > not noramally thought of as forms of hermaphroditism, (like 
> > hypospydias in males) but they in fact are. Imperfect 
> > differentiations / reproductive problems are most often caused by 
> > hormonal influences in utero. Thus when a baby is born with 
> > reproductive abnormalities ( these are not the result of an 
injury) 
> > then the cause is most often a condition that falls within the 
> range 
> > of disorders of intersex. The difference is only in severity, 
> > because there is no sharp demarcation between normal and slightly 
> > intersexed. 
> > 
> > The medical, legal and religious establishments are afraid to 
allow 
> > very intersexed persons to chose their own sex assignments, 
because 
> > of the implications for the rest of the people in the grayer 
areas 
> of 
> > sex differentiation. Thus, the binary system must be defended at 
> all 
> > costs. Even if it means the cruel multilation of helpless little 
> > babies who happen to be different from the perfect male or female 
> > model. 
> > 
> > There is certainly a medical tyranny involved in this. Read Dr. 
> > Alice Dreger's book on the history of this. "The Medical 
Invention 
> > of Sex" is the title, I think. She is a top medical ethicist 
> involved 
> > with the ISNA (Intersex Society of North America).
> > 
> > 
> > best wishes, 
> > 
> > BA G