2 Nov 2013

Law change to help babies of indeterminate sex

9:54 am on 2 November 2013

Germany has become the first European country to allow babies born with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as neither male nor female.

Intersex people will no longer have to be immediately registered with authorities as either gender.

As many as one in 2000 people have characteristics of both sexes. Parents have often faced intense difficulty in choosing which gender to identify their child as.

Surgery is sometimes done on babies to turn their physical charteristics as far as possible in one direction or the other, the BBC reports.

In Germany, parents will now be allowed to leave the gender of their baby blank on birth certificates.

German passports will have a new designation to reflect whether holders and intersex.