Human Rights in Practice: Ending Medically Unnecessary Surgery on Intersex Children

Kyle Knight, researcher in the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch, and Al Ittelson, interACT's Deputy Legal Director, will give a lecture on "Ending Medically Unnecessary Surgery on Intersex Children." Moderated by Carolyn McAllaster, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the HIV/AIDS Policy Clinic at Duke Law. Based on a discredited medical theory popularized in the 1960s, doctors today perform irreversible and medically unnecessary surgery on intersex children - often in infancy - with the stated aim of making it easier for them to grow up "normal." The results are often catastrophic, and the operations amount to violations of rights to bodily autonomy, freedom from torture, and health - and are coming under increasing scrutiny around the world. This is part of the Human Rights in Practice Series, which is organized by the International Human Rights Clinic and Center for International and Comparative Law. Co-sponsors include Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Human Rights Center at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Human Rights Law Society, Outlaw and International Law Society. Lunch will be provided. For more information, please see https://law.duke.edu/news/human-rights-practice-ending-medically-unnecessary-surgery-intersex-children/. To RSVP, please contact Ali Prince at ali.prince@law.duke.edu.