A client of mine has been off work a lot lately and the support staff have just been saying that his new born son has been ill. When I visited the depot last week he was back at work and so I asked him how his son was doing, thinking the child may have been prem, had jaundice, had colic or something like that. He looked at me and said "My son is bisexual". I just stared at him open mouthed and then couldn't help asking him "how do you know something like that???" to which he responded that his son has both female and male sexual organs.
I then realised that being Afrikaans he had used the incorrect terminology and that his one month old son was not sexually attracted to both males and females which would be bizarre at that age but is in fact a hermaphrodite.
I am familiar with the terminology and what it means especially after the whole Caster Semenya debacle last year. He then told me that the Doctors have told him and his wife that this condition affects 1 in 4000 children which is much more than I expected considering that thousands of babies are born every day!
They are now faced with an extremely difficult choice. One which is often a choice that many parents wish they had but when actually faced with it, it is not quite the same now is it? Choosing the sex of their child.
He says that for months prior to the birth they had planned for a baby boy and to them their child is male in looks but when nappy change time comes they are brought right back down to reality all over again that this child may not be male.
They have an appointment at a specialised clinic in Bethlehem next week where Specialists will run tests to determine whether one of the sexual organs is merely an appendage and the other is more dominant and functioning as well as certain hormonal tests.
I really feel for these parents as the choice they face will impact their child forever.
I did not want to press him too much but I wonder if this choice is left strictly to the parents or if they will need to apply to a court or something to have whichever set of sexual organs removed??
It also reminded me of a program we watched just this last week about albino children being murdered by their relatives due to superstition and I am sure that hermaphrodite children in certain cultures would face the same set of horrors.
I have to wonder why this happens? Yes I know the scientific reason of how it happens but why is what I want to know.
Are hermaphrodites perhaps a natural form of bisexual and was this fathers incorrect terminology actually a thoroughly accurate prediction? Is the world changing or has it been the same all along and we have been in denial? We are so set in our ways that there can only be male or female but what if there is in fact a shemale that we are destroying?
I know that deeply religious people would probably shout me down and say I am ridiculous to even think these things but my question is not posed to cause offense but is in my mind a very real one and then why has such a child been created who is in fact not ill but slightly different? I really have to ask the question of whether it is right to remove either of the organs when 1 in 4000 of these babies are born this way?
These children are perfectly formed in every other way so are they really in need of alteration or is that society speaking?
I will not even pretend that if I were faced with this choice that I would just say "oh leave the child they will be fine as they are and can make their own choice as an adult" as I realise there are many many implications but it brings me back to my point of is society altering a perfectly normal child and thereby making the condition one of a freak with many stigma's attached and if society moved away from that would these children not just add a very normal third dimension to the human race?
So this is my ultimate question:
If a child is born healthy and perfect with both sets of sexual organs which are both perfectly formed and both function fully then by removing either set is that not perhaps playing God or even a form of Genocide?
If the statistics were something like 1 in a billion children are born with this then I would be more inclined to change my thought process but 1 in 4000.... my word that is an everyday occurrence and perhaps if these children had not been altered for thousands of years prior to this moment they would already be accepted as "normal" in society today which brings me to another question of discrimination.
When Apartheid ended in South Africa it took a relatively short period of time to fully integrate races into each others schools, restaurants, residential areas, businesses, toilets, holiday destinations etc etc etc so who says that Hermaphrodites can not also be integrated?
There are more and more unisex toilets being built these days anyhow so there goes that argument....
Hmmm.... food for thought on a Saturday morning.
I wish these parents all the understanding and assistance and love in the world for their baby.
1 comment:
I think that was pretty interesting. Thought provoking. But 1 in 4000? I would have thought the odds would be much MUCH higher since it's supposed to be quite a rare genetic occurance.
As for playing god. Heh. I think I'll have to think about it... never thought about it before because I never intended to have children lol.
Post a Comment