title: [Girl or boy?--Parents' preferences, choice of sex, and sex reassignment surgery for children with disorders of sex development].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung Ethik und Geschichte der Medizin, Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, Humboldtallee 36, 37073 Gottingen, Germany. sude@gwdg.de
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ude-Koeller
authors.forename: Luise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wiesemann
mesh_terms: 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