Georgetown Law Journal
November, 2003
Westlaw ©2003 cite as 92 GEO L.J. 129 reprinted with permission of the author

Note

*129 WHO DECIDES? GENITAL-NORMALIZING SURGERY ON INTERSEXED INFANTS
Alyssa Connell Lareau [FNa1]

page 16

[FN63]. See Johnson, supra note 30, at 18; Jurgensen, supra note 7.

[FN64]. See Morland, supra note 55, at 2085.

[FN65]. See ABC News, Intersex Babies: Controversy over Operating to Change Ambiguous Genitalia, at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_ intersex_020419.html (last visited Nov. 10, 2003) (telling story of Hida Viloria, who was popular growing up and enjoys having an enlarged clitoris "immensely").

[FN66]. See Phornphutkul et al., supra note 6, at 135-36.

[FN67]. Jillian Todd Weiss, The Gender Caste System: Identity, Privacy, and Heteronormativity, 10 LAW & SEXUALITY 123, 140 (2001).

[FN68]. See Dreger, supra note 30 ("Removing parts doesn't remove the possibility that the child may change gender later; it only makes it a lot harder for the child to do what she or he wants or needs later.").

[FN69]. Weiss, supra note 67, at 141.

[FN70]. Id.

[FN71]. See id. at 144-45.

[FN72]. The Supreme Court has repeatedly acknowledged that parents have a fundamental interest in directing the care and upbringing of their children. See, e.g., Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 65 (2000) (plurality opinion) ("The liberty interest at issue in this case--the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children--is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court."); Lassiter v. Dep't of Soc. Servs., 452 U.S. 18, 27 (1981) ("A parent's desire for and right to 'the companionship, care, custody and management of his or her children' is an important interest that 'undeniably warrants deference and, absent a powerful countervailing interest, protection."' (quoting Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 651 (1972))); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 232 (1972) ("The history and culture of Western civilization reflect a strong tradition of parental concern for the nurture and upbringing of their children. This primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate."); Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U.S 629, 639 (1968) ("[T]he parents' claim to authority in their own household to direct the rearing of their children is basic in the structure of our society."); Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 166 (1944) ("It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder."); Pierce v. Soc'y of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534- 35 (1925) (holding that the "liberty of parents and guardians" includes the right "to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control"); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399 (1923) (holding that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees "the right of the individual to ... bring up children").

[FN73]. See, e.g., Hazel Glenn Beh & Milton Diamond, An Emerging Ethical and Medical Dilemma: Should Physicians Perform Sex Assignment Surgery on Infants with Ambiguous Genitalia?, 7 MICH. J. GENDER & L. 1, 39 n.183 (2000) (citing case law, the Institute of Medical Ethics, and historical studies for the proposition that "the state may intervene where parental decision making seemingly fails to adequately protect the interests of the child."); Patrick Henigan, Note, Is Parental Authority Absolute? Public High Schools Which Provide Gay and Lesbian Youth Services Do Not Violate the Constitutional Childrearing Right of Parents, 62 BROOK. L. REV.

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