Greece’s parliament has banned “sex-normalizing” surgeries on intersex babies, Reuters reported.
Intersex individuals have atypical chromosomes that affect their bodies in a way that does not fit with the normative definitions of male or female.
Under a new law the parliament approved July 26, surgeries that seek to ensure a child ascribes to traditional notions of male and female on people under the age of 15 years are banned in Greece, unless there is a court decision stating otherwise. Physicians who perform such surgeries could be subjected to fines and imprisonment.
Malta, Portugal and Germany have already banned such surgeries, which in the past have led intersex people to sterilization, loss of sexual sensation, psychosomatic trauma and health problems, said Rinio Simeonidou, who is the mother of an intersex teenager and secretary general of Intersex Greece.