The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has announced that beginning in May, three hospitals will be permitted to perform gender reassignment surgery, announced Nguyen Huy Quang, director of the Department of Legal Affairs for the Ministry. According to an internal document, in 2,000 newborn babies, one has genitals not fit to the chromosome. And 1 in each 11,000 people has gender disability or unclear gender. These defects stem from genetic mutations or defects, not from psychological factors due to social interaction, reports the Vietnam Net Bridge.
“The three hospitals chosen are the Central Pediatrics Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi and the Children’s Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City to prepare facilities, equipment and human resources to perform transgender surgery from May,” Quang added.
The process for gender reassignment surgery has been greatly streamlined and will prove a boon for those Vietnamese who had few if any options up until now. Essentially, those wishing for the procedure need only go down to one of the three hospitals, obtain a medical certificate on gender redefining and then begin the process of changing their names on all legal and state records.
Questions arose, however, on why these three, among the many facilities in Vietnam, were chosen as officially sanctioned locations. Quang explained that only three hospitals had the full range of technologies as well as the human resources support to manage such transitions.
While Vietnam still does not allow same-sex marriage, there is no doubt that today’s news will only add fuel to the same-sex marriage debate and force Vietnam to deal with the issue sooner rather than later.
