BREAKING FOX NEWS!;Parents sue South Carolina, hospital over child's sex assignment s

[natina]

Parents sue South Carolina, hospital over child's sex assignment surgery



A couple filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state of South Carolina for what they say was an unnecessary sexual assignment surgery performed on a toddler they later adopted.
Lawyers for Pam and Mark Crawford said Tuesday they were suing the Department of Social Services for having irreversible surgery performed on a 16-month-old child they eventually adopted and raised as a girl.
The child was born in 2004 with both male and female genitalia and placed in state custody after the termination of parental rights, according court papers. At the age of 16 months, doctors removed the child's male genitalia, leaving the toddler with female parts, according to court papers.
"The doctors knew that sex assignment surgeries on infants ... poses a significant risk of imposing a gender that is ultimately rejected by the patient," attorneys claim in the suit.
Instead, the lawyers argue, the optional surgery should have been delayed until the child was older and identified as male or female.
"That was a permanent, irreversible decision that was not theirs to make," attorney Ken Suggs said Tuesday of the lawsuits, which he said are the first of their kind in the U.S.
At the time of adoption, the Crawfords said they knew their child was born with ambiguous genitalia and raised the child as a girl starting in 2006. But about a year ago, the Crawfords say their now-8-year-old child told them he wanted to be raised as a boy. They supported the decision, allowing him to cut his hair short and wear boys' clothes.
The Crawfords said their family is adjusting, their son is happy and has the support of his community and school. But they chose to sue to keep other families from going through similar struggles.
"He keeps us smiling, but it's heartbreaking when he asks us questions about his body," Mark Crawford said. "We don't want him to become bitter."
The state lawsuit accuses the Medical University of South Carolina — where the surgery was performed — and Greenville Hospital — where the child was born — of negligence medical malpractice for not getting the patient's informed consent before surgery and failing to warn of potential problems resulting from it. At 16 months old, the suit alleges, the child was too young to make such a decision, one that could have waited until years later.
That complaint accuses state Social Services officials of failing to protect the child from the consequences of the surgery. A federal lawsuit also accuses doctors and state officials of violating the child's civil rights by performing the surgery without consent.
A spokeswoman for the Greenville Hospital System did not immediately comment on the suit. The Medical University of South Carolina and the Department of Social Services declined to comment.
The child is healthy, but the Crawfords' lawyers say there are medical issues that can result from the surgery, including sterilization or the loss of sexual function.
"These doctors wanted to play God," said Alesdair Ittelson, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which helped bring the lawsuit. About one in every 2,000 children is born "intersex," or with ambiguous genitalia, according to Anne Tamar-Mattis, an attorney with Advocates for Informed Choice, a group that supports intersex children.
Dr. Margaret Moon, a pediatrician who teaches at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, said while it might be easier on a family to have such surgeries performed when a child is young, ultimately it's best to wait until the child's own gender identity begins to develop.
"We know that it's probably better to wait and let the child make some choices, but it's at a cost to the family," Moon said. "The sadness of this child was that he was physically forced in to a gender that sort of didn't fit. ... He's going to have a hard time."





http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/0...nment-surgery/

[natina]

8-Year-Old Who Was Surgically Turned Into Girl Is Paying Hefty Price (VIDEO)

Should social services have gambled with the toddler's future by giving him sexual reassignment surgery

We've seen a few stories about transgender children who feel strongly about dressing and living as the opposite gender they were supposedly born as. But what about children with an intersex condition -- kids born with the genitalia of both genders? Who gets to decide what their gender is, and when? One couple is suing their state social services for deciding that for their adopted son when he was just a toddler.
Mark and Pam Crawford say that their son, now 8, wants to live as a boy. But before they adopted him, when he was 16 months old, South Carolina Social Services gave the child sexual reassignment surgery that made him a girl. The suit calls it "dangerous and mutilating surgery" that took away the child's right to choose his own gender.
Of course a lawsuit isn't going to undo what the state did long ago. I can't imagine how heartbreaking this has been for the Crawford family. They must be furious. But for them, this is less about rectifying their own injustice and more about making sure the state never makes this mistake again. "It's too late for my son, but we want to put other doctors on notice," Mark Crawford says.
I'm sure the state assumed the child would be easier to adopt if the gender were clearly one or the other. But still -- how could you just decide that? What criteria did they use? (At the time of the surgery, the toddler had high levels of testosterone.) I wonder if they ever contemplated the consequences of making the wrong choice? This surgery doesn't just affect the child's identity. It can affect their health and sexual life in several significant ways. The state should have known that gender identity is not necessarily determined just by your physical attributes.
And anyway, who's to say that a family wouldn't have adopted a child with an intersex condition? There are compassionate people out there who adopt children with all kinds of severe conditions and illnesses. Not enough, clearly. But still -- this is a condition that would have resolved itself with time and surgery later on. But as for the Crawfords' child, it looks like his troubles are just beginning.

Should social services have gambled with the toddler's future by giving him sexual reassignment surgery

http://thestir.cafemom.com/big_kid/1..._was_born_with

[natina]

[natina]

Steve Crecelius - Man Has Both Male and Female Sexual Organs

Steve Crecelius discovered he was a woman after he went to the doctor for a kidney stone. While the discovery wasn’t as obvious as some people are expecting, an ultrasound did reveal Crecelius had both male genitalia and internal female sexual organs!

The discovery was relieving, said the Colorado photographer. Since an early age, he had always experienced feminine thoughts and emotions, thinking himself to look “pretty” when he experimented with his mom’s makeup. Despite the mixed thoughts as a young person, it wasn’t until over 25 years of marriage and 6 children that a diagnostic test revealed the truth.

It’s not that Crecelius is really just a woman but he’s still a man, too. So all of you out there wondering how he could have fathered children and had a successful marriage should understand a little better. He said his wife and all of his children are very accepting of the situation, and his wife even took him to buy his first bra.
Now he goes by the name “Stevie” and is happy he can finally wear the clothes that make him look like a woman. Stevie’s situation is referred to as intersex, and over 1500 babies are born with the gender mix annually.
Just like Crecelius’s case, most people never know they have the internal organ of the opposite sex. This physical abnormality sparks the debate about homosexuality, and whether it is a condition of genetics or one of environmental influences.
If someone can be born with both male and female hormone-producing body parts, it stands to reason that someone can be born with the natural inclination to prefer people of their own gender. After all, no one who is straight woke up one day and made a conscious decision to like only the opposite gender. It’s just who they are and the way they were born.
Right now, Crecelius and his wife are still together, though no one knows what the future will hold. As someone who feels more like a woman, will he be inevitably more attracted to men? Or can a man born as a woman have inclinations to be a lesbian? And is all of this genetic, or is it a result of chemical imbalances in the brain?
The brain is a funny thing, and if one hormone or chemical goes a little out of whack, people start killing others or withdrawing from society or doing other “crazy” things. Instead of a genetic difference, like in the case of intersex people, could sexual orientation be all chemical?
Of course, those who believe we are all just chemical reactions will probably say it is. Some people will say it’s just fate or destiny, and then some people think all homosexuals are liars.
Regardless of the sexual preferences, Stevie is living proof that not everyone is born knowing they are male or female, and that sometimes a woman really can be trapped in a man’s body.


http://www.islandcrisis.net/steve-cr...sexual-organs/

[natina]

had to down load these photos

[natina]

any one finds this interesting or have a comment?

[Mr. Sinister]

Well, I think the doctors should not have performed any surgeries without consulting the parents.