This Family Is Suing the Doctors Who Performed Surgery on Their Intersex Son as a Baby.

BuzzFeed News reports on the Crawfords, a family who adopted their now-10-year-old son M.C. from Greenville, South Carolina, when he was less than 2 years old. M.C. was born intersex — he had a penis and a vagina, but doctors made the decision to remove his male genitalia before he was adopted. Today, he identifies as a boy. Now, the family is now suing the hospital and state guardians who OK'd their son's sex-assignment surgery, opening up a larger conversation as to whether or not doctors have the right to perform this kind of operation on children before they can give consent. Below are some of the key points of the story:

1. The Crawfords say they would have sued even if M.C. identified as a girl. "I feel very strongly about that," M.C.'s mother Pam told BuzzFeed. "That's the thing that seems to grab people — 'They got it wrong!' But that's besides the point. Nobody had the right to make that decision." 

2. Though M.C. is living seamlessly as a boy, his parents fear that people will treat him differently as his body changes with age. ​No one is exactly sure what puberty will be like for M.C. He may develop breasts and get his period. The fact that her son will probably have to deal with these things makes Pam angry: "We just hate that there were choices made that could have a significant impact on his being able to be a man. We just don't want people to have to go through what he's going to face."

MORE FROM COSMOPOLITAN

I Can't Stand Baby Gender-Reveal Parties

Picture Shows Crazy Thing That Happens When You Br…

Watch the Exact Moment This Badass Woman Gives Bir…

Little Girl Gets Glasses, Sees Parents Clearly for…

​​3. Surgeons seem to believe that operating is in the intersex child's best interests. Pediatric urologist at Albany Medical College​ Barry Kogan told BuzzFeed: "Those who advocate for stopping surgery don't have any evidence that the outcomes of that would be any better than what we're doing now. That's an experiment that's never been done.​" Kogan believes that performing sex-assignment surgery may prevent intersex children from inevitable psychological trauma.

Pediatric urologist at UC San Francisco Michael DiSandro agreed, noting that most intersex children in the United States undergo the surgery: "Forcing children to be raised with ambiguous genitalia is really tough — that's almost unethical."​ DiSandro performs minimally invasive surgeries that can be reversed later on, which is something the Crawfords still take issue with.

You can read more about the Crawford's lawsuit and M.C.'s life on BuzzFeed.