The Birth of an Intersex Infant: Exploring the Options and Ethics Behind Decision-Making

While joyous and miraculous, the birth of a healthy infant is an event laden with eustress, fear of inadequacies, and permutating visions of the future. Add to this the diagnosis of an intersex infant, and the family is catapulted into an abyss of unfamiliar questions and unexpected decision-making. Immediate surgical intervention to alter genitalia is a common decision, but is not the only option. An ethical debate stems around the core question of whether choosing the sex of a child is the responsibility of the parent, or of the child, as he or she ages. The psychological repercussions of sexual incongruencey resonates unabated throughout childhood and adolescence. The following paper explores the ethical considerations behind sex assignment surgery for intersex infants.