Intersex people have endured controversial surgeries and treatments, often when they were too young to provide consent, an inquiry by the Australian Human Rights Commission found in a report that recommends new legislative protections for children.
The commission heard about people undergoing surgeries to reduce the size of the clitoris [known as clitoridectomy or clitorectomy]; other surgeries to modify female genitalia such as reducing the size or modifying the shape of the labia minora [labiaplasty]; surgery on external female genitals, generally reducing the size or addressing the asymmetry of the labia minora [vulvoplasty], and surgery on an infant born with smaller than usual male genitalia [micropenis] to create the appearance of a female child by the construction of a vagina [vaginoplasty].
The commission was also told people were put on hormone treatment to facilitate typical male or female sex development.
The report recommends new legislation so that medical interventions take place only with the prior, informed, personal consent of the person concerned, except in the case where the treatment is a medical necessity.
The executive director of Intersex Human Rights Australia, Morgan Carpenter, said people with innate variations of sex characteristics had been subject to ongoing human rights abuses.
“Today we’re calling on state, territory and commonwealth governments to act to end these abuses. We need new laws that recognise our right to decide what happens to our own bodies.”
Source: Intersex people undergo surgery when too young to give consent, inquiry told | Health | The Guardian