Hermaphroditism Essay

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For a pregnant couple, it is common to be asked what gender your child is going to be: “are you having a boy or a girl?” However, what happens when it is difficult for a child to be classified in a specific gender? It is known that the XX chromosomes make up the genetic blueprint for a female and XY chromosomes make up the blueprint for a male. However, several people have not been identified as either a XX or a XY child. The condition “hermaphroditism”, commonly known as intersex, is the condition where a baby is “born with ambiguous genitalia…abnormally developed genitals that do not clearly identify the child as male or female” (Switzer 67). Thus, intersex people have been coined with the chromosomes XXXY due to uncertainty of which category they belong to. Usually with this condition, the baby would either have an abnormally large clitoris, an abnormally small penis, or both. Hermaphroditism, which falls under the “diagnosis of Disorders of Sexual Development (DSD), affects 1 in 2,000 children each year” (James). A common resolution is for the parent to choose the gender of the child, have the child undergo corrective surgery, and proceed to rear the child in the role of the selected gender. However, it has been argued that this method negatively affects the child both physically and psychologically. So, should parents be able to choose the gender for an intersex child? Some people might support the idea of parents choosing a child’s gender since it can be seen as a cultural aspect of their family and because parents have the freedom of choice. However, it is unreasonable and immoral for a parent to do so as it causes the child to enter into a struggle of self-identity, it does not allow the child to decide on having reconstru...

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...e then affected by hormones which cause the child to begin questioning their assigned gender. Because intersex children are able to understand this process of gender identity as an adolescent, it is selfish of the parent to be assigning the gender of their child. However, there are more effective solutions for both the parents and the child. Within the United States, New Jersey recently passed a new bill that “would grant citizens the right to change the gender on their birth certificate without having gender-reassessment surgery” (Greenhouse). Solutions have also gone beyond the United States. In November of 2013, Germany allowed a “third gender designation: X, for…intersex” (Greenhouse). This bill would then start to refrain doctors from having the parents to force choosing the gender of the child and having the child undergo surgery before their adolescent years.

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