Islamic Center of Southern California

The Arguments of Islamic Law Rulings on Recent Medical Issues

Topic Twenty

Sex Change Procedures for Normal People and Intersexes

Definition

Sex change operations for a normal person, whether male or female, are performed at big centers in European countries.

A male is changed to a female by removing his genital organ, constructing a vagina, performing an emasculation operation, and enlarging the breasts.

A female is changed to a male by removing her breasts, constructing an artificial penis, and eliminating, to various extents, the feminine genital canals.

Such an operation is accompanied by intensive psychological and hormone therapy.

A sex change operation for an intersex are made to determine the sexual status of such a person, who has two organs, male and female, or may have neither, only a urine-discharging opening.

The Legal Position Chosen by the IOMS and Its Argument

The recommendations of the third seminar say:

The seminar addressed the question of plastic surgery and concluded that the surgical procedures called sex change operations, performed to satisfy decadent desires, are absolutely forbidden. Meanwhile, operations aimed at determining the real sexual status of intersexes are permissible.

I would like to add that the basis of this sound ruling is to safeguard normal human nature and not to change what is created by God, the Most Sublime. Islamic Center of Southern California