Government Grants 5-Year-Old Child’s Intersex Surgery

Government courts approved the surgery of a 5-year-old child who identifies as female but was born with both male and female parts, according to BBC.

The child, known only as Carla, was born as an intersex child. This means the child was born with female anatomy on the exterior of the body with a male reproductive system inside.

Carla and her parents have chosen to have the surgery, which will remove the male reproductive organs and leave the child as a sterilized female.

Court documents show medical experts testified that surgery would remove the risk of Carla developing tumors and that she had no certainty of future fertility, BBC reports. Experts say surgery should happen before puberty. 

“I consider the proposed medical treatment ‘therapeutic’ as being necessary to appropriately and proportionately treat a genetic bodily malfunction that, untreated, poses real and not insubstantial risks to the child’s physical and emotional health,” Family Court Judge Colin Forrest said in making his ruling. {eoa}