Although the issue of transgender people has become an important global issue for several decades, the origin of this disorder dates back thousands of years, and questions have been raised about it in our traditions. The main objection of transgender people to people and governments is always that you do not understand the issue properly, and for this reason, you create inappropriate rulings and laws and make incorrect judgments. Dr. Sa’id Nazari Tavakkuli, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medical Jurisprudence, has been researching and teaching on various topics of medical jurisprudence and medical ethics for many years. He has published many works on medical jurisprudence, including the books “Organ Transplantation in Islamic Jurisprudence” and “Child Custody in Islamic Jurisprudence.” The director of the Medical Jurisprudence Group of the Iranian Medical Law Association, has also written many articles in English for international journals and conferences. In this special note, the full professor at the University of Tehran seeks to briefly introduce transgender people and the jurisprudential challenges they face. The detailed note of the Scientific Council member of the Health and Medical Jurisprudence Group of the Contemporary Jurisprudence Studies Center, is for your consideration:
Transsexual, also known as sexual dissatisfaction, sexual conversion, and sex change, is a person who is opposed to the sex assigned at the time of their birth. These people have a completely healthy physical and sexual appearance, internal sexual organs, and hormonal and chromosomal system and belong to a certain sex, but mentally and psychologically consider themselves to belong to the opposite sex. These people are extremely dissatisfied with the anatomical structure of their body. The contradiction between body and mind is manifested from the age of three with symptoms such as frequent desire to belong to the opposite sex or insistence that he is of the opposite sex, preference for wearing clothes of the opposite sex and imitating their appearance, continuous and excessive preference for roles of the opposite sex in pretend games or continuous fantasies about belonging to the opposite sex, and a strong desire to participate in games and choose playmates of the opposite sex.
Transsexuals feel an urgent and continuous need to eliminate existing sexual symptoms and the social roles associated with it, and instead, seek to acquire the sexual characteristics and social roles of the opposite sex. For this reason, at the first opportunity, they seek treatment through various means such as receiving hormones of the opposite sex and surgery and creating sexual organs of the opposite sex in order to obtain a form that suits their psyche and continue their individual and social activities.
In the discussion of the mandatory rule of gender reassignment, the most important issue is the applicability of the principle of sovereignty, which is referred to in the literature of medical ethics as the principle of “autonomy.” Does the sovereignty of man over his own soul have such an application that it allows man to change his own integrity? Also, if gender reassignment is accompanied by the cutting and removal of the main genitals and this action entails causing harm to his physical or mental health in the long term, can the principle of harmlessness prove its sanctity? (Considering this, in many countries except Iran, gender reassignment only leads to a change in appearance, the person retains his main organs, and the act of gender reassignment that leads to the removal of the sexual organs is illegal.)
However, in terms of status rules, such as privacy, marriage, inheritance, etc.; the issue of gender reassignment is subject to the issue of whether status rules are subject to sex or subject to gender? Undoubtedly, with gender reassignment, the person’s external structure changes, but his gender does not change; That is, a woman does not become a man, but rather takes on a masculine form; as a result, her genetic structure, brain structure, and perception do not change. If the status rules are gender-dependent, all the rules related to the new gender are imposed on the person, and the previous rules are nullified; but since these rules are gender-dependent and gender never changes, then the same previous status rules remain the same.
It is worth remembering that since the act of changing gender was not feasible in the era of the Infallibles, “gender” has always been consistent with “sex” and, as a result, all the religious reasons regarding the rulings of being male and female are based on sex. For this reason, relying on customary understanding in limiting oneself to gender and basing one’s new female or male appearance in situational rulings does not seem justified.
Hermaphrodite is a type of anatomical disorder and deformity. That is, in the body of the affected person, there are sexual organs of both female and male sexes. For instance, a person’s external genitalia may be male, but female organs such as the uterus and ovaries may also be incompletely present in his body. Such a person is considered to be hermaphrodite. Hermaphrodites are divided into three categories: true hermaphrodite, male pseudohermaphrodite, and female pseudohermaphrodite.
True hermaphrodites refer to individuals who have both male and female reproductive systems in their entirety. Pseudohermaphrodites are also referred to as individuals who, although chromosomally considered male or female and possess the corresponding reproductive system, have a tissue similar to that of the opposite sex.
The neutral title in jurisprudence refers to hermaphrodites. The most important issue regarding the mandatory ruling regarding these individuals is the principle of innocence; because if we have any doubt about the necessity of surgery for true hermaphroditism, male pseudohermaphroditism, and female pseudohermaphroditism (doubt in the doubt of necessity), the principle is based on non-obligation; that is, it is not obligatory for them to do something to have one gender or to make their true gender appear; but in order to benefit from the effects of the specific gender, they must first correct their gender. It is clear that this ruling is conditional on their desire to marry, inherit from the heir, and the like, and if they do not desire such a thing, the obligation to determine gender as a prerequisite will also be nullified; in addition, the legislator has established a special law for the inheritance of problematic and non-problematic neuter individuals.
If female and male pseudo-hermaphrodites do not want to undergo surgery, they are required to observe the rulings of their original gender; however, if true hermaphrodites do not want to undergo surgery, they are required to observe caution in matters such as privacy and marriage.
As can be seen, gender reassignment is an issue related to transgender people, and the term “problematic neuter”in jurisprudence refers to bisexuals and their types, and these two issues are completely distinct from each other.