Mom Starts Group For Parents of Intersexed Kids
By In Your Face News Service
New York, NY
THE MOTHER of an
intersexed infant who was a victim of
Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM) at just
over 5 months of age has started a support
group for parents of intersexed children.
Helena Smith of Jacksonville, Florida
announced formation of HELP: Hermaphrodite
Education & Listening Post to help other
parents cope with the enormous pressures of
bringing up intersexed children.
Mrs. Smith's own child, Patrick, had
been admitted to Baptist Wolfson Hospital in
Jacksonville to have a single undescended
testicle removed. While the infant was
there, the attending pediatric urologist
asked to test the remaining gonad for
cancer.
But, according to the Ms. Smith,
the doctor instead tested the gonad to
ascertain if it was an ovo-teste - an organ
containing both ovarian and testicular
tissue. When he found that it was, he cut it
off without her authorization or consent.
When she confronted the doctor, he told
her the organ was malignant and had to be
removed. However after months of struggling
with the hospital and the doctor, Mrs. Smith
finally obtained the pathology report on her
child which confirmed what she had suspected
all along: there was nothing wrong with her
healthy child except that it was intersexed.
Said Mrs. Smith in a telephone
interview, "This has traumatized and wounded
both of us terribly. Patrick is the most
wonderful, precious gift I was ever blessed
with, from the day he was born. He was
perfect the was he was, until a doctor
decided to cut him up and try to make him
into a girl -- without my consent or his - at
just 5 months of age."
She added that Patrick refuses to be
categorized as a boy or a girl; when asked
which he is, he'll only say, "I'm Pat-Pat,"
his name for himself. Mrs. Smith has
retained counsel and a suit is currently
pending against the hospital and surgeon.
H.E.L.P can be reached at their
web-site WWW.SouthEast.Com/~HELP; or, by mail
at PO 26292, Jacksonville FL 32226, or
through GenderPAC.
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