Berlin, March 26, (dpa/GNA) – The parents of intersex children in Germany will no longer be allowed to have sex reassignment surgery performed on their kids.
It is estimated that there are around 160,000 people in Germany who cannot be distinctly identified as male or female biologically.
Germany’s parliament decided late Thursday on a ban on treatment that alters the bodily appearance of a child to conform to the male or female sex.
Exceptions are only allowed if it is not medically possible to postpone the intervention and it is given the go-ahead by an interdisciplinary commission.
Lawmaker Paul Lehrieder from the centre-right Christian Democratic Union party said the law protects the right to self-determination and safeguards those affected from unnecessary treatment.
The FDP party as well as The Left and The Greens abstained from the vote, arguing that while they support the objective, they do not think the law adequately protects those affected.
The only clear rejection was from the far-right Alternative for Germany party, whose family policy spokesman Martin Reichardt called the move an ideological delusion at the expense of a child’s best interests.
GNA