Updated 1pm

THE EUROPEAN COURT of Human Rights has said that Turkey was wrong to deny gender reassignment surgery to a transgender man because he could procreate as a woman.

The man is a Turkish national who was registered as a women when the dispute began. He applied to undergo gender reassignment surgery in 2005 and an application for the procedure was sent to the local district court.

A psychiatric report from the hospital concluded that it would be better for the patient to live as a male.

Despite this, the court refused the application on two grounds. Firstly, because they said it wasn’t necessary for the preservation of his mental health.

Secondly, the court said that it hadn’t been shown that the individual was unable to procreate.

A hospital report hadn’t found that the individual was unable to carry a child.

The applicant appealed and witnesses testified that he lived every aspect of his life as a man. He argued that the denial of the surgery was leading to a discrepancy between his perception of himself as a man and how his body appeared.

He also argued that the law in effect meant that he would have to undergo sterilisation surgery to go ahead with the reassignment procedure.

In a judgement delivered yesterday, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously decided the the individual’s rights had been breached. The court concluded that the respect for the man’s private life was broken.

The court reiterated that the possibility for transsexuals to have full enjoyment of the right to personal development and physical and moral integrity could not be regarded as a controversial question.

First published 6am

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