The American Academy of Pediatrics holds a strong position against female genital mutilation, including in terms of religious or ceremonious practice. This position was their original position, however, at one point, the AAP pediatricians decided that in some cases a certain form of female genital mutilation is acceptable. These pediatricians decided that when a family approached them asking for a safe route of mutilation for their daughters, due to religious tradition from their nation and culture of origin, it was safer to only nick the little girl's genitals than to turn the family away. These physicians rationalized this mutilation by explaining that if they were to turn these families away, they would fly back to their nation of origin and have the mutilation performed in a manner that would permanently damage the little girl and her genitals.

When the AAP announced this change in position there was a public outcry and the position was changed in a matter of six weeks. This indicates that a petition like this one, aimed at the AAP would create real, immediate change.

What I am asking you to do is to tell the AAP that performing a surgery on an intersex child's genitals, without their (the child's) consent, should be treated as an unacceptable medical practice as female genital mutilation is. Performing this surgery on a child can permanently damage their ability to reproduce, if they are born with this ability, and gives parents and doctors the ability to determine a child's sex and gender- which is normally not a human power. The sex that is assigned could feel incorrect to the intersex child as they grow and become aware of their identity, and the majority of intersex persons who find out what has been done to them strongly object to it. Many say that it feels as if they survived sexual abuse as a child, or feels similar to how that might feel. Leaving the child's genitals alone will not harm them physically, where the surgery may and often does, and does not make them a freak. As long as parents are well educated in how to raise the child and teach them that they are not different in any important way from their peers, the child is empowered with the ability to determine a sex that feels right to them at some point later in life when they can consent, or to decide that how they were born is a perfectly acceptable and enjoyable life to live.

These surgeries are often performed without proper education of the parents, many doctors lie because they feel the parents must chose to have the surgery performed. These doctors consider these children as different from others in a damaging way, a form of sex discrimination. By the time that most intersex persons are old enough to realize what has been done to them they are not able to take legal action against the doctor who performed or recommended the surgery, because law usually requires legal action to be taken within a short period of time.

Please demand that the AAP take the ethical position on non-consensual genital surgery in intersex children, in order to maintain the child's legal and human rights. No one but the intersex person should be able to make that choice, and if the AAP publicly states that it agrees, most physicians will stop performing these surgeries and all parents will know that having their wonderful, perfectly normal child decide is not only a viable option, but the only good one.

Thank you for taking such an importance stance on protecting these children,

Denali Dalton Toevs