Hormonal Surgical Reassignment of Transsexuals according to Communion and Stewardship

Communion and Stewardship, published by the International Theological Commission in 2004, expresses for the first time a standpoint of the Church to sex reassignment surgery as a therapy for persons suffering from gender identity disorder. The paper defends the importance of body for the unity of human beings. However, it admits with respect to the whole tradition an intervention for adequate reasons. It distinguishes between functioning and essential totality, and comes to the conclusion that gender identity disorder is not a sufficient reason for a deep and irreversible intervention into the body integrity by hormonal surgical reassignment (HSR). The discussion on the basis of the art. 86 will probably be focused on the question whether it is allowed to use the above mentioned therapy for preserving mental health and improving relationships with others. The author of this article tries to answer this question by means of interviews with catholic transsexuals.

Keywords: Sex reassignment surgery; Principle of totality and integrity; Unity of the human body; Transsexual; Gender identity; International Theological Commission; Communion and Stewardship