CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered notice to the union and the state governments on a petition praying for directions to the authorities to formulate and implement protocols for gender affirmative care procedures to ensure ethical practices are adopted by doctors dealing with trans persons.
A division bench of Justices SS Sundar and Mummineni Sudheer Kumar recently issued the notice and ordered the respondent authorities to file a counter-affidavit within four weeks following a PIL filed by a trans activist. Accordingly, the bench adjourned the matter by four weeks.
The petition has enlisted and explained several “unethical and objectionable practices” adopted by the healthcare providers at transgender persons’s clinic functioning at Rajiv Gandhi Govt General Hospital (RGGH) in Chennai and Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, and thereby, violating trans persons’s right to “informed consent” as laid down by the Supreme Court.
It alleged doctors are insensitive to the sentiments of trans persons and are adopting unethical procedures like the ‘per veginum examinations’ under the pretext of medical necessity, despite medically not necessary.
The petition further said such unethical procedures may lead to gender dysphoria, which is a distress associated with a degree of incongruity with respect to a person’s assigned sex at birth and their self-identified gender identity.
The failure to formulate the operational and technical protocols as per the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Guidelines (WPATH) is a violation of the fundamental rights of trans persons to self-determination of their gender identity and gender expression under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution, the petition said.
It added in the absence of protocols, trans persons face a situation where self-determination of their gender identity may not be respected by healthcare providers, and violation of fundamental right to bodily autonomy, dignity, privacy, right to health and to access healthcare under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The petitioner prayed for the court to declare any unethical practice, technical or operational protocol which are not in line with WPATH standards of care as “professional misconduct”, and direct the authorities to formulate technical and operational protocols for gender affirmative care procedures after due open public consultations.