International

On the Turning Away – A Brief Exploration of Medical Ethics

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Philip Zimbardo is an American psychologist. He was detailed to investigate the abuses – long denied – committed on prisoners at the Abu Ghraib detention camp. In his report he describes the phenomena whereby apparently otherwise “good” people do very bad things, in this case, the crimes committed in Abu Ghraib. “Good people do bad…
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Should Doctors Operate on Intersex Babies?

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In a word, no.   However, that wouldn’t make for a very readable Buzzfeed article, so instead we have this.   This article is gaining some traction on fb. It’s easy to see why. It has an identifiable subject who has been subjected to appalling medicalised violence in the name of orthodox protocols. Protocols that…
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Hidden in Plain Sight

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The United States has been in the vanguard of writing and influencing intersex medical protocols since the 1950’s, and it has been so since J Money wrote his hypothesis that sought to justify non-consensual, pre-emptive surgical and other medical interventions on people born intersex.  The currently adopted protocols have only served to reify those orthodoxies. …
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This is what they do

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This is what they do

An intersex activist colleague, Dr Small Luk, was recently interviewed by Time Out in Hong Kong.  In the interview they speak with great candour and honesty about their experiences, and the effect medical interventions had on their life. http://www.timeout.com.hk/gay-lesbian/features/72091/interview-we-talk-to-intersex-individual-dr-small-luk-about-her-gender-struggles.html   “I really thought I was a monster […] It isn’t the intersex person that needs…
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WHO report – Sexual Health, Human Rights and the Law

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The World Health Organisation today published it’s long awaited report on sexual health, human rights and the law. Echoing a  recently published report by the UN, the WHO report contains a significant section dedicated to intersex people, as well describing the situation of other stigmatized groups in society such as lesbians, gay men and transgender…
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OII-UK welcomes the UN report on LGBT and Intersex people

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OII-UK welcomes the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights  report published on Monday – “Discrimination and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity”,  A/HRC/29/23.  Within it’s pages the report makes detailed references to LGBT and Intersex human rights issue. The report details a wide range of actions…
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