Ambiguous Genitalia Case Study

Every parent wants the best for their child. They want to nurture and raise their child to live a normal life. In some cases, that may be quite difficult for parents. Some babies are born with ambiguous genitalia. Ambiguous genitalia means one does not have strictly male or female genitalia when one is born. As a parent, one must choose to go ahead with a surgery that will give them male or female genitalia or also have the option of letting them grow up with their ambiguous genitalia and maybe doing the surgery later on. I believe that if I was in that situation, I would let my baby develop with ambiguous genitalia and have the surgery later. I would do this because I do not want to risk making the wrong decision for them and feeling guilty

For example, if they decide to become a boy, I will not be able to have the boy sex talk with them because they do not have the matching genitalia with what they feel. Another reason comes from the BuzzFeed video of “What It Means to be Intersex,” they said that doctors told them that it could cause them cancer in the future or that it’s bad for them. But the intersex people knew the doctors would try to make them do the surgery because of cosmetic purposes. If they had the surgery, it might make them conform into a sex category they do not feel right in. For example, if a parent allowed the surgery to make their child female, they would raise them to be girls. The child is then forced to conform to the sex they were assigned because of the surgery allowed by the parents. But by doing this, it might have future consequence if the child is not conforming to how they are being raised. Also according to Preves, “ Individuals who underwent medical sex assignment in childhood experience consistently negative and confusing messages about their bodies and their identities. (Preves 2003)” This can be true because as mentioned before, assigning them a sex without them deciding might not be what they wanted. It will make them feel as if they are in a body that they are not supposed to be in. They also might feel very confused on what they are because they feel a certain way but their body is telling them something else. Something else to consider would be image. Image is based off a societal viewpoint. Doing the surgery would be a way of conforming to the way society would want you. Usually people are categorized into male or female, no in between. Humans are categorized into male or female because it makes things easier for some people. Like Judith Lobber said in Night To His Day, “For an individual, gender construction starts with assignment to a sex category on the basis of what the genitalia looks like