Health and medical ethics (page 13 of 18)

For an introduction to these issues, see our page on bodily integrity

Gina Wilson photographed by Dean Sewell

Medicare is now sex and gender neutral

We welcome the Health Minister’s announcement today that Medicare will be gender and sex neutral. For intersex people, the fact that our bodies do not conform to sex norms means that the healthcare issues we face sometimes do not conform to the way medical services and procedures have been defined, and made available, by Medicare….
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poster reading 'It's time to stop 'normalising' genital surgery on intersex infants and children'

It’s time to stop cosmetic genital surgery on intersex infants

It’s time to stop. In 2013, cosmetic genital surgeries still take place on intersex infants in Australia to make them “appear normal”. The surgeries are carried out primarily for social reasons: fears of family and social stigma. Clinicians themselves acknowledge that there is no firm evidence of good outcomes, especially for sexual function and sensation….
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Parliament

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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Parliament

Update on Senate Inquiry on involuntary and coerced sterilisation

The Senate’s Community Affairs Committee has announced that the final report of its inquiry on the involuntary and coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities will now be split into two reports. The first report, in relation to people with disabilities, will be released on the scheduled date of 17 July. A second report, focusing on…
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Parliament: an icon showing an outline of the Australian Parliament

New, fourth, submission on involuntary sterilisation

We have made a fourth submission to the Senate Inquiry on involuntary or coerced sterilisation. It follows a submission by the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group, a feature article in The Age, and new developments in Europe and the US.

Parliament: an icon showing an outline of the Australian Parliament

Third submission to Senate Inquiry on involuntary sterilisation

OII Australia has made a third submission to the Senate Inquiry on involuntary and coerced sterilisation, focusing on female genital mutilation, the M.C. case in the US, and other investigations into the medical ‘normalisation’ of intersex people.

detail of Equal Rights Trust issue cover

Equal Rights Trust: Testimony by Gina Wilson on rights for intersex people

The UK’s Equal Rights Trust has just published testimony by OII Australia president, Gina Wilson, in The Equal Rights Review, Vol. 10. Gina talks about her personal background, her work as an activist, and the issues we face in seeking human rights, including intersex and the sex binary, the medical model, invisibility in human rights…
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