Submission to inquiry on intentional self-harm in children
Following discussions with the National Children’s Commissioner, we have made a late submission to an inquiry on intentional self-harm and suicidal behaviour in children.
Parenting (page 2 of 2)
For an introduction to these issues, see our page on intersex for parents
Andrew Solomon on growing up different
Andrew Solomon A.M. Homes and Robert Hoges spoke recently at Sydney Writers’ Festival on growing up different from parents – something he terms “horizontal identity”, in contrast with (for example) ethnic heritage, and typically religion and nationality which are “vertical identities”, shared between family members. Radio National presented extracts of this talk on Monday 2…
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WHO/UN interagency statement on involuntary or coerced sterilisation
The World Health Organization, together with OHCHR, UN Women, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF, have issued an interagency statement on Eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization. The statement covers intersex people, trans people, women, women with HIV, indigenous and ethnic minority women, and people with disabilities. This is an important development, that recognises the…
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Submission on the ethics of genetic selection against intersex traits
OII Australia has made a submission to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) on the deselection of intersex traits using Assisted Reproductive Technologies.
Intersex health and wellbeing: the role of parent counselling in two contrasting studies
A study published in the peer reviewed medical press this month describes the birth of an intersex child as a “challenging clinical emergency”, and finds that the incidence of post traumatic stress symptoms in parents is comparable to that amongst parents of children diagnosed with cancer. OII Australia believes that the framing of the birth…
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Clinicians acknowledge lack of justification for surgeries on intersex infants in Australia
The Australian Senate is currently conducting an Inquiry into the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities and intersex people. Two recent submissions by the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group (APEG) and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne (RCH) to the Inquiry offer some surprising admissions: medical interventions take place for social rationales, sometimes portrayed as…
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“Golden Boy”, by Abigail Tarttelin
I loved this book. It vividly captures the effects of secrecy and shame on an intersex adolescent, and a family in crisis. It’s compassionately and beautifully written, from the perspective of six key characters: Max the protagonist, his brother, parents, doctor and friend. Unlike Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex, which manages to convey the impression that intersex…
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Things are looking up: the M.C. case reshapes public understanding of intersex in the US
Lizzie Reis writes about the M.C case taken by Advocates for Informed Choice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Crawford family and pro bono lawyers. Writing at Nursing Clio Reis says: M.C. had been identified male at birth, but his genitals were sufficiently indeterminate that surgeons removed his ambiguous phallus, a testis, and testicular tissue…
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Intersex for parents
This page is for new parents of an intersex child, prospective parents planning a pregnancy or undergoing genetic or preconception screening, and also parents of older children.
Groundbreaking US law suit filed on genital surgery
Advocates for Informed Choice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, pro bono lawyers and parents Pam and Mark Crawford have filed “the first ever impact litigation lawsuit” in the US for “performing an irreversible and medically unnecessary surgery on an infant who was in the state’s care at the time of the surgery”.
Video: Intersex documentary “Intersexion”
Long awaited documentary about the experiences of a number of intersex people around the world, Intersexion, was made for New Zealand television broadcaster TV One by Grant Lahood with the assistance of Wellington-resident intersex activist and counsellor Mani Bruce Mitchell.
Katrina Karkazis, “Fixing Sex” (recommended reading)
Published in November 2008, Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience by Katrina Karkazis is compelling and recommended reading. Meticulously researched and approachable in style, it presents a historical analysis of the treatment of intersex people, together with an analysis of both current medical practice and the impact on intersex people and our families….
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