For an introduction to these issues, see our page on genetics
The Western Australian Parliament is currently debating a Births, Deaths and Marriages Bill. Much of the debate makes erroneous assumptions about the implications for people with innate variations of sex characteristics.
Announcement: A multi-institutional research team has been awarded $5M in federal government funding to help create a safer and better future for people with innate variations in sex characteristics (IVSC).
We have today made a submission to Treasury on use of genetic test results in insurance underwriting.
The Department of Health in Western Australia has invited submissions in response to a discussion paper on proposed legislation in relation to assisted reproductive technologies and surrogacy.
This statement follows press reports suggesting that the NSW Finance Minister will introduce a proposed amendment to a bill decriminalising abortion in the Legislative Council to prohibit terminations on grounds of sex or intersex traits.
Many intersex traits are genetic, with an identified origin. The elimination of such traits from the gene pool is an established and growing phenomenon.
The implementation of the government’s national My Health Records scheme for digital health records raises many ethical issues.
An important and long-awaited supplement to the Yogyakarta Principles is published today. The Principles apply international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation, gender identity, and now also gender expression and sex characteristics.
The Darlington Statement is a joint consensus statement by Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand intersex organisations and independent advocates, agreed in March 2017. It sets out the priorities and calls to action by the intersex human rights movement in our countries.
The sponsorship of LGBTI events by IVF businesses raises ethical issues not just about the elimination of intersex traits, but also about the nature of community and comprehension of issues relating to intersex bodily diversity.
In 2014, OII Australia made a lengthy submission to the National Health and Medical Research Council calling for the prohibition of genetic testing to select against intersex traits. This submission responds to subsequent draft guidelines.
Georgiann Davis’s first book, “Contesting Intersex, The Dubious Diagnosis” is hotly awaited, and the first chapter has just become available online, from the publisher. Here are a couple of quotes (references omitted):