[Girl or boy?--Parents' preferences, choice of sex, and sex reassignment surgery for children with disorders of sex development].
OBJECTIVE
Ethical guidelines for the treatment of newborns with disorders of sex development have come under critical discussion. Former patients urgently demand a reassessment of surgical genital corrections, arguing that modern societies are more willing to tolerate sexual ambiguity and that clear-cut gender differences are becoming less and less important.


OBJECTIVE
The growing children's rights movement has stressed the fact that children are not just objects of their parents and society's expectations. The limits of parental decision making in case of sexual ambiguity are an object of ongoing controversies. We discuss the relative authority of parents' wishes in the determination of the newborn child's sex.


CONCLUSIONS
We reject a purely autonomy based approach. Our arguments are based on a relational ethics of parenthood.
Ude-Koeller
Susanne
S
Abteilung Ethik und Geschichte der Medizin, Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, Humboldtallee 36, 37073 Gottingen, Germany. sude@gwdg.de
Muller
Luise
L
Wiesemann
Claudia
C
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics; D012734:Disorders of Sex Development / Q000601:surgery*; D005835:Genitalia / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D033282:Parental Consent / Q000941:ethics*; D010290:Parents; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D013518:Surgery, Plastic