The dilemmas of sexual definition: how to proceed with child born with severe genital malformations?

Abstract

The birth of a child, usually a festive event, can become great pain when the baby presents genital malformations that prevent the immediate assignment of gender and social setting. Sometimes, male children with severe anatomical changes and the impossibility of surgical phallic construction are, phenotypically transformed into women, a procedure under questioning, particularly by civil society members. From a real case of a newborn with the diagnosis of cloacal exstrophy, the difficulties and ethical questions involved in decisions related to gender definition are discussed in this paper, from many experts’ point of view, who are directly or indirectly involved in approaching these children.