Non-Consensual Sex Surgery On Minor Violates Child's Dignity: HC

The Kerala High Court ruled that any non-consensual sex-selective surgery on minor amounts to violating the child’s dignity and privacy while dismissing a plea by the parents of a seven-year-old with ambiguous genitalia to allow genital reconstructive procedure so that they could raise the child as a female.

Justice VG Arun noted on Monday that granting such permission may result in severe emotional and psychological issues during adolescence when the child develops an orientation towards a gender other than the one to which the child was converted through surgical intervention.

Sex Selective Surgery For Child

He observed that granting the petitioners permission to proceed with the planned genital reconstructive surgery on the child would infringe on the child’s rights under articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Indian Constitution.

Justice Arun directed the state government to form a state-level multidisciplinary committee comprising experts to examine the requests for sex-selective surgery on intersex children. The court noted that the committee should consist of a paediatrician, a paediatric endocrinologist, a paediatric surgeon, and a child psychiatrist or psychologist.

Further, the court asked the government to issue an order regulating sex-selective surgeries on infants and older children within three months. The court ruled that until the regulations are in place, all such surgeries shall be conducted only on the basis of the opinion of the state-level multi-disciplinary committee.

The minor child whose parents moved to the Kerala High Court with the plea stated that the child was diagnosed with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. They said that the child’s doctor had advised surgery, but no surgeon was willing to perform one without a legal order.

The government had earlier submitted in court that the medical board that examined the child had suggested the constitution of a committee competent to study and take a legally sound decision in such situations.

The court ordered the committee to decide based on whether the child was facing any life-threatening situation due to the specified condition.

Suggested Reading: HC Convicts Man For Sexually Harassing Woman Cop Over 300 Calls