Sex, Lies, and Surgery: The Ethics of Gender Reassignment Surgery

In this paper, I argue that in cases in which competent adult patients have been suffering from long-term gender identity disorders which interfere with their everyday life functions, gender reassignment surgery is a morally permissible treatment option. Though many argue that it is morally impermissible to allow the use of surgery for such non-medical things as reassigning gender, I argue that the use of surgery for reassigning gender is morally permissible on the basis of Kantian autonomy and Utilitarian reasoning. In this paper, I will further discuss my argument, as well as the primary objections to the argument and my replies to those objections