• One or two infants out of every 1000 births are born with “sexually ambiguous” genitalia, meaning that these infants have both male and female genitalia in varying degrees. There is much debate over the best treatment for these “intersex” individuals (Viren 262). Should the doctors and parents make the decision of which gender the child will be when the child is very young and perform the appropriate surgery early in the child’s life, perhaps even in infancy, with the risk of choosing the wrong gender for the child? Or should any surgery and hormonal treatment be postponed until the child is older, perhaps past puberty, when the child can make the decision of which gender he or she wants to be? The risks with this option, however, are that this leaves the child open to many problems in childhood such as feeling he or she doesn’t fit with either gender, being teased by his or her peers, etc.? What do you think is the best treatment choice for these intersex children?

• One of your written sources must be the essay “Never Quite Male or Female, It’s her Decision Now” on pp. 262-266 in our text Reflect, Inform, Persuade. Your second written source can be from elsewhere.