First Do No Harm' Intersexuality and the Rise of the Medical Profession

Kim Heinz

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Hernandez, Sarah

Keywords

Intersex, Medical Profession, Intersex Movement

Area of Concentration

Sociology

Abstract

Since 1993 intersex activists have been protesting what they consider to be the unnecessary medicalization of the lives of intersex people. Within the last decade, intersex organizations such as the Intersex Society of North America and Bodies Like Ours have attempted to reform the current medical model of intersex treatment- that of surgery. Recently, however, groups such as the San Francisco Intersex Task Force have shifted their focus away from medical reform models to direct their attack at the authority of the medical profession. This thesis examines the connections between the social perception of the intersex body and the rise in authority of the modern-day medical profession. It calls for a sociological understanding of the dominance of the surgical model over intersex treatment, highlighting the ways that the consolidation of the medical profession has been reflected in the various models of intersex treatment that have changed over time. It urges doctors to be aware of the role that their profession has played in dictating the lives of intersex people and urges activists to understand that the charges they direct at individual doctors should be directed at the profession as a whole as a collectively constituted and internally regulated social body.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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