Monday, May 26, 2008

girl 12 allowed sex change

I do is wonder at where modern science and medicine has brought us. No idea of this is good or bad. But it gives rise to so many questions in my mind!

A judge has provoked controversy in Australia by ruling that a 12-year-old girl could begin the first phase of a sex change. The unnamed girl has begun hormone treatment to block puberty after a judge accepted an application from her mother for her to begin to reassign her gender.

A family court judgment said it was important to act quickly to prevent the onset of puberty as the girl dreaded the prospect of menstruation and developing breasts, and had threatened self-harm.

It was reported yesterday that during a hearing in December, the court heard that the girl from Victoria had thought of herself as a boy since the age of four. Several medical experts, including a psychiatrist, backed her application for a sex change.

But the child's father bitterly opposed the decision, in part because of his daughter's young age, the court was told. A medical ethicist, Dr Nicholas Tonti-Filippini, said the decision was astounding. "Twelve is a time of great uncertainty for a young person ... I would question whether the medical evidence supports treating [her] in this way." (Telegraph)

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