Trans youth to undergo surgery in Latin America
A 17-year-old transsexual boy has been granted gender reassignment surgery in Argentina.
The Consulting Bioethics Committee of the Córdoba Judiciary decided that the child, known as Nati, can now go ahead with surgery and can also have the gender changed on her official documents including her birth certificate.
The landmark decision to allow Nati to receive the surgery follows three years of petitioning.
The case was originally dismissed in 2004 on the grounds that parental permission did not extend to granting irreversible surgery.
Nati will now focus on her surgery, which is imminent. She said:
“I’m very happy that my real identity has been recognised.”
Nati suffers from Harry Benjamin Syndrome, a congenital intersex condition that is believed to start during pregnancy when the brain of an unborn child develops as one gender and the body as the other.
This will be the first gender reassignment surgery performed on a minor in Argentina and in Latin America.
In January this year a 12-year-old Austrian child had gender reassignment treatment after persuading her parents and doctors that she was sure she was a girl.
