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中间性
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怎样对待中间性
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社会-文化的态度
- 医学传统
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正象法律一样，医学也有宗教根源。只有幽灵、神仙或上帝能够给人治病。当巫师、巫医(巫婆)和法术师或牧师设法治疗病人的时候，人们总以为惟有他们才能够有回春之术。更重要的是(他们有)神力相助。在西方世界，古希腊与古罗马的内科医生是打破这种传统认识的首批凡人。他们开始不理会这种所谓超自然的魔力，并且把科学原理运用于医学实践。在中世纪，古希腊和古罗马医生的医术完好地被继承下来并进一步由伟大的伊斯兰医生所发扬。继而，融为一炉的古希腊、古罗马和伊斯兰医生的医术知识为欧洲第一个医学院奠定了基础，随后的医学研究积累与快速发展推动了无数医学院的发展，最终产生了我们当今所见到的非凡的医学科学进步。
然而，有一个被遗忘的角落：直到进入20世纪晚期，性医学仍旧沉浸在不被公认的宗教和现代科学发展之前的幻想之中，愚蠢地把陈腐的违反宗教(或道德规范)行为和缺陷重新定义成疾病，以拯救或恢复性的秩序为己任。所以，正象他们前辈神学家一样，性医学的医生们对任何类型的性变异(sexual variations)也不耐烦。在对待中间性的病例中，这就通常意味着尽早地对病人作出性别指派(sex assignment)甚或“矫正”手术。没有人质疑对中间性者所迅即实施的“标准化手术”，却有人堂而皇之地认为手术终究“体现了孩子的最大利益”。在人们看来，世界上毕竟只有两个性别，任何介于这两者之间的性特征现象必须当作病态加以消除或抑制。像“缺陷(defect)”、“紊乱(disorder)”、“畸形(malformation)”和“变态(abnormality)”的医学术语就反映了这种观点。
诚然，长久以来，中间性的原因曾未可知。惟有现代基因与激素研究才最终揭开了基础发现的帷幕，不过，甚至于到了今天，还没有完全了解所有中间性的原因。尽管如此，医生们至少已经懂得了要更加谨慎，他们懂得了尊重个体的差异。因此，他们现在照例承认每一个病人自主决定的权利。只要个人对自己异常的生理发育感到满意，他们逐渐发现他们会根据自己的主张而被人所接纳。毕竟，即便“非矫正的”中间性症状也不会以任何形式贬低个人的尊严。 |
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Intersexuality - Dealing with Intersexuality
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Socio-cultural Attitudes - Medical Traditions
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Just as the law, medicine also has religious roots. For many thousands of years, only the spirits, the gods or God could heal. When a shaman, witch doctor, medicine man, or priest tried to cure the sick, it was well understood that his treatment alone could not make them well again. Much more important was the help of divine forces. In the Western world, the physicians of ancient Greece and Rome were the first to break with this tradition. They began to disregard the supernatural and to apply scientific principles to the practice of medicine. In the Middle Ages, their work was preserved and further developed by great Islamic doctors. Their combined knowledge, in turn, laid the groundwork for the first Medical Schools in Europe, and the accumulation and acceleration of research conducted in these institutions eventually produced the enormous scientific advances we have seen in modern times.
However, there was one exception:
Well into the 20th century, sexual medicine remained tied to unacknowledged religious, prescientific notions. It simply redefined the old sins and vices as diseases and saw its duty in preserving or restoring sexual conformity. Therefore, just as the theologians before them, the doctors had little patience with sexual variations of any kind. In the case of intersexuality this usually meant the earliest possible sex assignment and “corrective” surgery. There was no doubt that a prompt “normalization” of an intersexual body was always “in the best interest of the child”. After all, there were only two sexes, and anything in between had to be eliminated or suppressed as unhealthy. Medical terms like “defect”, “disorder”, “malformation”, and “abnormality” reflected this view.
Of course, for a very long time the causes of intersexualty were unknown.
Only modern genetic and hormonal research finally opened the door to the essential discoveries, but even today not everything is fully understood. Still, doctors have learned enough to be more cautious and to respect personal differences. Accordingly, they now grant every patient the right to self-determination as a matter of course. As long as individuals are content with their atypical physical development, they increasingly find themselves accepted on their own terms. After all, even an “uncorrected” intersexual condition does not diminish a person’s dignity in any way. |
