Perspect Biol Med. 2022;65(2):316-326. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2022.0027.
Robert Perske argued in 1972 that "there can be such a thing as human dignity in risk, and there can be a dehumanizing indignity in safety." Though Perske was referring to paternalistic care for the intellectually disabled, we can extend his counsel to the persistent attempts to impose a different kind of "safety," including efforts to enforce the gender and sex binary, as intersex surgeries were (and still are) meant to do. This article argues that when physicians surgically and hormonally alter the genitals and gonads of intersex infants, shaping their bodies to safely align with typical male and female bodies and gender roles, they unwittingly subject them to a dehumanizing indignity. Imposing the binary legislatively with anti-transgender bills is similarly harmful and can inadvertently undermine intersex care. Conservative lawmakers' tacit dismissal of young people's transgender identities parallels physicians' paternalistic, even if well-intentioned, efforts to make intersex bodies fit neatly into prescribed categories. Whether legislative or medical, these interventions promote the traditional gender and sex binary and undermine the dignity of such persons' eventual self-authorship.
罗伯特·珀斯克（Robert Perske）在 1972 年提出，“风险中可能存在人类尊严，安全中也可能存在去人性化的侮辱。”尽管珀斯克指的是对智障人士的家长式关怀，但我们可以将他的建议扩展到持续努力强加一种不同的“安全”，包括实施强制的性别和性别二元性的努力，正如过去（现在仍然）旨在进行的两性畸形手术。本文认为，当医生对两性畸形婴儿进行手术和激素治疗，改变他们的生殖器和性腺，使他们的身体安全地与典型的男性和女性身体和性别角色相一致时，他们无意中使他们遭受了去人性化的侮辱。通过反跨性别法案在立法上强加二元性同样具有危害性，并可能无意中破坏两性畸形护理。保守派立法者对年轻人跨性别身份的默许忽视，类似于医生的家长式作风，即使是出于善意，也试图使两性畸形的身体整齐地归入规定的类别。无论是立法干预还是医疗干预，这些干预措施都促进了传统的性别和性别二元性，并破坏了这些人最终自我创作的尊严。
