Should doctors be banned from surgically ‘correcting’ intersex traits in children?
The ACT could be the first jurisdiction to enforce legal controls.
Clitorectomies, phalloplasty and gonadectomies on intersex children will be illegal without an urgent clinical justification, under draft ACT laws.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr says doctors have performed inappropriate interventions, and the legislation — the first in Australia — is necessary to protect children from harm.
It would ban significant deferrable surgeries affecting a child’s sex characteristics until the intersex child had capacity to consent, with potential penalties of up to $22,000 in fines or two years’ imprisonment.
Medical ethics expert Dr Wendy Bonython (PhD) says that “historically”, babies born with intersex characteristics have been treated “almost immediately”.
