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Email: "Australian Court Authorizes Sex-Change for 13 Year-Old Girl"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com SYDNEY, April 14, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An Australian Family Court ruled Tuesday in favor of a 13 year-old girl who wants to become a boy. The ruling allows the girl to begin hormonal treatments to suppress feminization in preparation for full sex-change operations and male hormone treatments to induce masculinization in the future. A psychiatrist and expert witness in the trial said, “[Alex] is a bright, engaging, biologically normal 12-year-old girl who has a strong, persistent, longstanding belief and desire to live life as a male . . . She has repeatedly stated her desire to be a boy and has behaved as such, going to boys’ toilets, dressing in boys’ clothes, boys’ hairstyles and boys’ games and activities. She feels angry and cheated that her body is female and angry that she has periods.”  Alex was raised by her father, who, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, died when she was six years old. She has since been under the legal guardianship of the state, although she lives with her aunt. Australia law mandates that decisions such as Alex’s be made by the Family Courts v. parents or guardians, Jenni Millbank, a senior lecturer in law at the University of Sydney, told the Sydney Morning Herald. Ethicist Nicholas Tonti-Filipini told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation radios, “This medical treatment [is] completely unproven…To do it to a 13-year-old who is still in formation, whose body is still forming, whose sense of identity is still forming, it’s just irresponsible.” He is calling for an appeal of the decision to a higher court.  The state is on the hook for all medical costs incurred by the sex change decision.  See BBC coverage at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3624891.stm   Sydney Morning Herald coverage: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/13/1081838723546.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/australian-court-authorizes-sex-change-for-13-year-old-girl/

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