Parents forcing sex change on children as young as 1

[pitchan]

My country fails a lot of the times. Like seriously. We have parents killing foetesus of young girls (which is why determining sex of child in India is a very difficult thing to do. They don't want parents to opt for abortion) hoping for male child , and now I hear this. I AM RAGING SO MUCH RIGHT NOW.

 

One mother even says (of girl child she forced sex change on): 'My son will grow up comfortable with his gender because he wont remember the sex change operation.'. LIKE REALLY.

 

http://www.hindustan...int/713863.aspx

 

Keep in mind that its usually girls who are forced to become boys, and extremely rare the other way round.

Edited June 28, 2011 by pitchan

[bigbig_bang]

Got goose bumps while I was reading the news! How sadly and do they call theirselves parents?? What kind of parents force their child change his-her sex?

I'm so sad, OMG my gut turns.

[K.C.]

 

 

This is an outrage! Changing a child’s sex to suit the parent’s desire for a son over a daughter is just unfathomable. I know in most societies sons are preferred over daughters, but this is cruel and should be stopped.

 

Sex changes for both MTF and FTM are extremely serious and potentially life threatening surgeries. The risks are huge. Infection, complications, massive scarring, loss of sensation, not to mention the amount of drugs that would need to be taken, these are not just hormone drugs for the rest of their life, but antibiotics, inti-inflammatories, and anti-rejection meds for the skin and tissue grafts.

 

I personally know someone who has went through FTM transgender surgery. It is never something to be considered lightly. The surgery is brutal. It is done in stages and it is not perfect (very very far from it!) The result is not a fully functioning penis. In the very best cases it is visibly passable for a normal penis. There is no erection without assistance from a pump or device. Additional surgeries are required for a working urethra. Ejaculation isn’t possible and there is very little sensation in the tissue, and through surgery and drugs he is sterile. I can understand the desire to want feel like a complete man in his situation. He chose to pursue this surgery knowing and accepting the risks, but it is uncondonable to force this on a child. :pissed:

 

 

[Cia]

Internal organs do not make a person their gender. This is in some ways similar to the whole 'am I still a woman if I lose my uterus' topic I've come across in the medical field. There are many complex components to who we are and what gender we identify with, part mental, part hormonal, and part physical imo. Those organs that make us male or female are defiitely not the be all and end all to how we should view our gender. Obviusly if those children have some internal organs of one gender and external of another there is no clear cut way to say which is more dominant until THEY can determine that. They should be raised to accept themselves until they are able to really know who they are. Any other reason for the surgery truly is unnecessary and legislation should be put in place quickly to discourage and regulate the practice except for when actually necessary..

[K.C.]

I do agree with Cia that children born with ambiguous sex should be allowed to make that decision when they are old enough to express which gender they identify themselves with. It is a big decision and one that the child should make when they are able to make an informed decision regarding their own body and health.

 

 

 

But for perfectly healthy children to have their sex changed for no valid reason should be outlawed.

 

 

[Michael9344]

Coming from a pretty much similar society, I understand the craze for male children. But driving/changing the child's sex is a whole new level and it's taking too far. I know changing a child's organs doesn't necessarily change her gender. of course there's Cia's post. I hate to think this news was actually true.

 

Posted Today, 05:54 PM

 

Internal organs do not make a person their gender. This is in some ways similar to the whole 'am I still a woman if I lose my uterus' topic I've come across in the medical field. There are many complex components to who we are and what gender we identify with, part mental, part hormonal, and part physical imo. Those organs that make us male or female are defiitely not the be all and end all to how we should view our gender. Obviusly if those children have some internal organs of one gender and external of another there is no clear cut way to say which is more dominant until THEY can determine that. They should be raised to accept themselves until they are able to really know who they are. Any other reason for the surgery truly is unnecessary and legislation should be put in place quickly to discourage and regulate the practice except for when actually necessary..

 

[Quey]

Nooo way. this is really uncool. Parents forcing children to go through these kinds of stuff is just bad.

[TrevorTime]

But for perfectly healthy children to have their sex changed for no valid reason should be outlawed.

 

I could not agree more. That whole article made me want to hurl. What kind of 3rd world nonsense are they doing over there in Indore?

Edited June 29, 2011 by TrevorTime

[pitchan]

I could not agree more. That whole article made me want to hurl. What kind of 3rd world nonsense are they doing over there in Indore?

 

It's the Asian mindset in a way. The burning need for a son. I hate that mindset but its there. Thank god my family doesn't believe in all that stupidity (we are also a family of girls in the majority. I have only 1 male cousin out of at least 10 xD).

 

The following is something my friend linked me to after seeing my post. It's cases that have occurred and the result (why changing gender of young children does not work).

http://healthland.ti...tists-humility/

Edited June 30, 2011 by pitchan

[Tara00]

Yes, Pitchan. I read that one too. It was all over the newspapers. I couldn't believe it was true until I went and researched about it for a bit myself. In Indore, about all of the surgeons testify to having done the genitoplasty about 100-200 times. That just shows the spread of ignorance which is highly unsettling. It's done at a meager amount of money which makes it accessible for the most mediocre of households.

 

They state something like hormones are injected in the baby during the operation. This will only lead to a partial male development which can confuse the person and attract unnecessary ridicule.

 

To satisfy their own need of a 'baby boy', parents could go on to being as selfish as making their children 'infertile'. It's a shame such things should happen in an educated society, in areas where education is prevalent and where people are raised to distinguish between right and wrong; not just morally but even scientifically.

 

Tara.

[intune]

I can't believe anyone would do this to their kids. This practice should be illegal to perform on children, they can't even give consent

[DragonFire]

I had to re-read the original title because I wasn’t sure I read it correctly the first time! This is shocking beyond belief if this practice really goes on.

 

It beggars belief that this barbarism is sanctioned by parents who want a male child! At a loss for words… I really am.

 

 

[Cailen]

I think there is going to be a shocking number of transsexuals and suicide rates over there in a few years time. to do that is shocking and disturbing and really reflect a narrow minded bigotry that will eventually come around to bite them in the ass. (hopefully)

[nop]

Wow. This is...atrocious. Are these parents under the impression that they're going to get a normal boy out of this with no lasting issues, or do they really just not give a shit about their child so long as they get a boost to their social status out of it? Like...wow. Just wow.

[Dannsar]

Wow! You can all jump and scream and bitch about this all you like. It will make not one whit of difference in a population of over a billion humans. There is a culture in the Indian society which has persisted for eons. What has changed now is that there is sufficiently easy and cheap access to the required technology to perform this ... vile, atrocious, disgusting, despicable, inhuman act. Curiously, it may also be the catalyst for change. In twenty years time when guys start hanging themselves because some idiot has decided to make their body incompatible with their brain, people may start to realise the idiocy. Until then there is nithung to be done except send in the troops if we feel it's sufficiently abhorrent to sacrifice our own lives over it. Which, of course, we won't. And which, of course, we probably shouldn't. And which, of course, we definitely couldn't.

 

Still an absolutely disgusting thing to do to a child. See where the stupid middle classes can let themselves get led to. I wonder if the mothers who have acceded to these disgraceful acts would consent to having their own clitori and labia sewn up into a permanent poor facsimile of a dick? Nope! And neither would the dick's of fathers who hold sway in such matters, indeed hold their wives as chattels. But we ought to remember, we are probably not that far ahead of countries such as India. It's not even one hundred years since we gave up on not telling women about sex and then locking them up for life for their sin of getting pregnant off a toilet seat, but not also telling them that their sin was to have had something called sex which is what actually made the baby. Mad as it may seem, but this is probably just another example of stupidity in a society going through a sort of adolescence. Us being stunned by the horror of it won't change much in a society where there is little or no access to information. Even in the UK many Asian women can't speak any English, despite having lived here for years. The culture is male dominated and women are kept ignorant (uneducated). So there is next to no chance in the origin culture. I mean ... think how many parents /people in the UK / US still think that homosexuality can be cured ...

[Arpeggio]

Wow! You can all jump and scream and bitch about this all you like. It will make not one whit of difference in a population of over a billion humans. There is a culture in the Indian society which has persisted for eons. What has changed now is that there is sufficiently easy and cheap access to the required technology to perform this ... vile, atrocious, disgusting, despicable, inhuman act. Curiously, it may also be the catalyst for change. In twenty years time when guys start hanging themselves because some idiot has decided to make their body incompatible with their brain, people may start to realise the idiocy. Until then there is nithung to be done except send in the troops if we feel it's sufficiently abhorrent to sacrifice our own lives over it. Which, of course, we won't. And which, of course, we probably shouldn't. And which, of course, we definitely couldn't.

 

The first step when confronting a problem is actually make awareness to it. Jumping, screaming, and bitching helps, it brings awareness.

 

 

 

[Arpeggio]

My opinion: These people are seriously confused if they think surgery will change a gender identity. In fact, I know a lot of transgenders who do not even think of sexual reassignment surgery because they feel it's purely cosmetic. Gender identity is mental, and surgery doesn't change that.

[XBadboyX]

When I read this I felt like all south-Asian countries are only populated by ignorant traditionalist bigots.

 

Obviously I know better, but this reminds me of how many south-Asian parents use offspring as a means to an end, thinking that the child won't resent them for it (and believe me that will happen).

[Dannsar]

The first step when confronting a problem is actually make awareness to it. Jumping, screaming, and bitching helps, it brings awareness.

 

Sorry, I don't think I made myself clear enough. Thanks Arpeggio.

 

My closing section alluded to people being in ignorance. The trouble us that in a situation (such as mostly rural and povertous) India, where there is no access to information, or at least to unmediated information about social taboos, then it is almost impossible to get the ideas across. There would be every point in people on the ground jumping up and down ... but for the most part we are not on 'that' ground. And it would appear that here is little point in addressing the doctors, here. Clearly the medical culture is such that common medical sense is completely ignored. The doctors are educated people ... if they can't understand ...

 

I know a thirty five year old guy in Scotland who did not understand that fascist parties were heavily anti-gay, that the British National Party is heavily anti non-white, and that they are all very Hitleresque. Incredibly he had no idea that Hitler had attacked gays as well as Jews. It's not that the information isn't out there. It is.

 

But if people choose not to look at information, if their 'authorities' and community leaders choose to subvert it and maintain their own practices in that way, or if the means does not exist to get the message transmitted and communicated effectively, then little will change. It will take the phenomenon of people talking amongst themselves about tragedies to change things. In the twenty year scenario I mentioned there is quite likely to be a collision of that and a wider media culture with greater media plurality.

 

My opinion: These people are seriously confused if they think surgery will change a gender identity. In fact, I know a lot of transgenders who do not even think of sexual reassignment surgery because they feel it's purely cosmetic. Gender identity is mental, and surgery doesn't change that.

 

Spot on