单选题
Sex change surgery guidelines drafted
China is set to its first clinical guideline on sex-change Surgery, according to a notice put on the website of the Ministry of Health yesterday.
The ministry is now soliciting public and professional
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on the draft guideline. The coming guideline aims to regulate and standardize sex reassignment surgery, part of a treatment for gender identity disorder in transsexuals.
Experts
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nearly 2,000 Chinese have undergone sex-change surgery while 100,000 to 400,000 are still considering it. However, no official number is available. In the draft, the MOH sets minimum
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for both surgical candidates and medical institutions.
Candidates for the surgery must be older than 20 and single, the draft guideline said. They are also required to prove a persistent
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for a sex change, to live for at least five consecutive years full-time in the new gender role, and to engage in mental therapy for at least one year.
Before surgery can take place, a candidate must receive a recommendation for the operation from a
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after an appropriate series of therapy sessions.
Also, several legal requirements must be met
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the procedure. The candidate must provide proof from police that he or she has does not have any criminal
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in the past. Police must also agree to change the sex status on the identity card of the receiver before the
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can take place.
The advent of such a guideline is believed to show that the government is concerned
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the needs of a relatively small number of people who want to change sex. But doctors also warn
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all stakeholders, including the hospital and prospective receivers, should be highly cautious about this surgery.
The operation is more than a medical
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due to its-huge social and legal consequences. Doctors should make it clear to those
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sex-change surgeries that the option always remains to continue to live in the original role. The guideline
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surgeons to tell patients about other options such as hormone therapy, They are also required to explain the
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involved, and underlying social barriers including discrimination, and administrative recognition and approval.
For the candidates, the surgery itself is not the
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issue in the long run. The real issue is the kind of life he or she will have to lead afterward.