印度家長爲女童變性引爭議

Indian doctors have been accused of conducting sex change operations on young girls whose parents want son to improve the family's income prospects.

爲求子以使家庭收入更可觀，印度一些父母要求醫生對女童實施變性手術，而這些醫生已遭到控訴。

Madhya Pradesh state government is investigating claims that up to 300 girls were surgically turned into boys in one city after their parents paid about ￡2,000 each for the operations.

印度中央邦政府正對這起指控進行調查，據稱在印多爾市，有最多300名女童接受了外科變性手術，而他們的父母爲每例手術支付了大約兩千英鎊。

Women's and children's rights campaigners denounced the practice as a "social madness" that made a "mockery of women in India".

婦女兒童權益運動人士譴責這種行爲是“社會的瘋狂”，而且使“印度女性遭到嘲笑”。

India's gender balance has already been tilted in favour of boys by female foeticide– sex selection abortions - by families who fear the high marriage costs and dowriesthey may have to pay. There are now seven million more boys than girls aged under six in the country.

印度的性別比例早已失衡，男性數量多於女性。由於不少父母擔心將來要爲女兒支付高昂的結婚費用，以及添置嫁妝，不少女嬰慘遭流產，也稱爲選擇性墮胎。印度6歲以下的孩子中，男孩比女孩多出700萬。

Campaigners said the use of surgery meant that girls were no longer safe even after birth.

婦女兒童權益運動人士指出，變性手術意味着女孩即使在出生後也不安全。

The row emerged after newspapers disclosed children from throughout India were being operated on by doctors in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

據印度報紙披露，中央邦印多爾市的醫生正給來自全印度的女孩做變性手術，這引發了人們的熱議。Doctors confronted in the investigation claimed that girls with genitalabnormalities were being sent to the city's clinics to be "surgically corrected" and that only children born with both male and female sexual characteristics were eligible for the procedure. But campaigners said the parents and doctors were misidentifying the children's conditions to turn girls into boys.

受調查的醫生稱，家長將生殖器畸形的孩子送到該市診所進行“外科矯正”，只有生來就具備男女雙性徵的孩子才能進行手術。但婦女兒童權益運動人士指出，家長和醫生錯誤地判斷了孩子的狀況，把女孩變性成男孩。

The surgery, known as genitoplasty, fashionsa penis from female organs, with the child being injected with male hormones to create a boy.

這種手術稱爲生殖器成形術，利用女性的性器官造出男性性器官，孩子還被注射雄性激素，變成男孩。

Dr V P Goswami, the president of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics in Indore, described the disclosures as shocking and warned parents that the procedure would leave their child impotent and infertile in adulthood.

印多爾市印度兒科協會會長格斯瓦米醫生稱，這一真相讓人震驚，提醒家長變性手術會導致孩子長大後性無能甚至不育。

"Genitoplasty is possible on a normal baby of both the sexes but later on these organs will not grow with the hormonal influence and this will lead to their infertility as well as their impotency. It is shocking news and we will be looking into it and taking corrective measures," he said.

他說：“生殖器成形術對男女雙性的孩子來說是可行的，但之後，這些再造的性器官在生長過程中接受不到激素作用，這會導致不育以及性無能。這太令人震驚了，我們會調查這件事，並進行糾正。”

"Parents have to consider the social as well as the psychological impact of such procedures on the child."

“家長必須考慮這種手術對孩子的社會和心理影響。”