[Girl or boy?--Parents' preferences, choice of sex, and sex reassignment surgery for children with disorders of sex development].

DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM

Ethical guidelines for the treatment of newborns with disorders of sex development have come under critical discussion. Former patients urgently demand a reassessment of surgical genital corrections, arguing that modern societies are more willing to tolerate sexual ambiguity and that clear-cut gender differences are becoming less and less important.

ARGUMENTS

The growing children's rights movement has stressed the fact that children are not just objects of their parents and society's expectations. The limits of parental decision making in case of sexual ambiguity are an object of ongoing controversies. We discuss the relative authority of parents' wishes in the determination of the newborn child's sex.

CONCLUSION

We reject a purely autonomy based approach. Our arguments are based on a relational ethics of parenthood.