(CP) – A recent entry in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that it’s time to rethink how sex designations are listed on birth certificates to accommodate those who are intersex as well as people who identify as “nonbinary” or transgender. The New England Journal of Medicine, which describes itself as “the world’s leading medical journal and website,” published an article titled “Failed Assignments—Rethinking Sex Designations on Birth Certificates.”
Published on Dec. 12, the article was written by Drs. Vadim Shtelyer and Eli Adashi of Brown University’s Alpert Medical School along with trained lawyer Jessica Clarke of Vanderbilt University Law School.
“Sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility, and they can be harmful to intersex people. Moving such designations below the line of demarcation wouldn’t compromise the birth certificate’s public health function but could avoid harm,” the authors contend in a summary of the article, which is behind a paywall.
According to the text of the article, obtained by CNS News, “Designating sex as male or female on birth certificates suggests that sex is simple and binary, when, biologically, it is not.” The authors also maintained that “the biologic processes responsible for sex are incompletely defined, and there is no universally accepted test for determining sex.” READ MORE
