If You were born with both sex genders which one should you keep?

Answer 1

What is gender ambiguity?

First, to answer this question one must clarify what happens when a baby is born with ambiguous gender. When a baby is born with more than one set of sexual genitalia or with a penis less than two centimetres long, a controversial course of action may be practised by a medical practitioner to tell the parents choose a gender. In some countries however, the medical practitioner may make that selection autonomously. It is important to understand that in the United States, the UK and Australia, this ethics of this practice are challenged by both the medical and legal professions.

The ethical dilemma

The second part of the question is implied in the word 'should'. From an objective perspective that does not consider cultural rules, the procedure can be looked at with only the health of the baby left to consider. From this perspective, plain answers for the questions the parents will be faced with can be revealed.

Why parents choose gender assignment

Why would a parent agree to a surgical procedure on a baby, to remove or alter their genitalia, when these organs are functioning and pose no health risk to the baby?

The procedure will not improve the health of the baby, but as with any procedure requiring total anaesthetic, it will risk the baby's life. If the baby does live and the surgery results in the desired changes being made, the baby could still suffer brain damage from the operation.

If the parents consider these ethical questions, including the possibility of their baby dying and they still want the surgery then what does this mean about the parent - child relationship? This means that in it's present state, the baby is healthy, yet so unacceptable to the parents that they would risk it's death to alter the baby from it's natural state into something they would accept.

Quality of Life

"The management approach of sex reassignment for ambiguous genitalia" as it is sometimes referred to, contains only one word that fits it's description and that is 'ambiguous'. The purposeful use of this terminology creates the false illusion that the needless damage inflicted though lengthy, complicated, expensive, risky, surgeries for removal of several organs from a baby is both natural and healthy. The parents of these babies are told "to raise them without ambiguity". For adults who have had these operations in infancy, this means they have never been candidly informed of their medical histories.

Deception

Once the surgery is performed on the baby the parents are told to consistently enforce one gender role as the child matures. Since the deception cannot be maintained indefinitely, the child's future is burdened with a traumatic time-bomb that they will eventually be confronted with. It is considerably unhealthy for a person to discover that the world they knew, and everyone it, in has lied to them every day of their life up to and until the moment they learn the truth. They learn that they have been systematically deceived by the very people who should have been the most trustworthy, their parents. They will also learn that the state has choreographed their family structure.

"Even more disturbing than discovering the secret, the former patient will also discover that his or her deformity is unspeakably shameful in the minds of parents and physicians."1

Medical Reality

The child grows up, becomes adult, and has no idea of their medical history. This creates a long list of medical problems. While gender reassignment surgery was an accepted and uncontested medical practice in the United States from 1940 until 1970, much has changed since then. Efforts are now being made to attempt to address the many diverse medical issues that victims of these cultural practices now face: 1, 2

• impaired trust in the medical field resulting from deliberate deception;
• irreversibly forcing the major alteration of a human being without their consent;
• irreversibly removing a person's ability to have children;
• permanently damaging the person's ability to regulate their hormone production;
• eradicating information such that it is impossible for the person to form a realistic appraisal of their own medical situation.

"What Gender is Not" 3 ( article by Tom Head, Civil Liberties Guide for About.com)

1. Visible body differences do not necessarily determine gender.

2. Chromosomes do not necessarily determine gender.

3. Fertility does not necessarily determine gender.

4. Neuropsychiatry does not necessarily determine gender.

5. Biology, in general, does not necessarily determine gender.

Terminology related to this subject

• hermaphrodites, intersexuals, - born with more than one sexual gender.
• ambiguous gender, - born with a penis less than two centimetres long or with undeveloped genitalia of either sex.
• transsexuals - individuals whose sexual self-identification is in opposition to their genital configuration and rearing.

I think that if the child is born a hermaphrodite that the organs that they have most of should be the chosen sex of the child. Say the child was born with all the female organs (ovaries, uterus, Fallopian tubes), a partial vagina and a abnormal looking penis then they should choose the child to be a female.

If there aren't any female organs and the penis is normal or can be reconstructed to be a normal looking penis and they have a prostate then they should choose male as the child's sex.

Some parents might choose to let their child be a hermaphrodite until they reach the age to choose on their own. In this case the child probably was born with all of the organs of both sexes and either genitalia can be reconstructed to be fully functional, then obviously the child will choose what they want to be.

Hope this helps you understand.