Legal Problems Related to the Process of Gender Reassignment and the Protection of the Rights of Intersex Patients in the Russian Federation

Among the congenital pathologies of sexual development, hermaphroditism is of the greatest interest as a disease that, on the one hand, provokes social discrimination against persons diagnosed with gender formation disorders, and on the other hand, acts as a trigger for the violation of the rights of intersex people in a variety of social relations. Among the problems identified during the study, we can identify: 1) gender reassignment is made only after the diagnosis of «transsexualism», preceded by a psychiatric examination, whereas hermaphroditism is not associated with mental disorders, but occurs against the will of the patient; 2) there are «blank spots» in the existing gender reassignment procedure: the term of the state of an intersex person under the supervision of a psychiatrist has not been established, the requirements for medical institutions involved in the examination of such patients are not specified, it is not clear whether the attending physician of an intersex person can be a member of the council gender reassignment doctor; 3) due to the limited legal capacity of minors, the priority in choosing the legal and actual gender even in a situation with an intersex child belongs to his parents, which often cripples a small patient. To solve the identified problems, the researcher proposed: 1) to provide at the level of legislative and by-laws for intersex persons to change gender to a different diagnosis than transsexualism; 2) to overcome «blank spots» only after a comprehensive discussion of problematic aspects with all interested parties, after which it is possible to develop normative regulation; 3) when diagnosing hermaphroditism in a child, preference should be given to the opinion of medical specialists, who will have the right to postpone surgery with an unambiguous sex determination, while the parents should have the right to choose the «gender of education» of the child.

medical law, gender reassignment, transsexualism, hermaphroditism, intersex person, pathology of sexual development, human rights, child rights, patient rights, family law, labor law