NATURA, KULTURA I HYBRYDY. PRAWNE KONSTRUKCJE TRANSSEKSUALIZMU I SPRAWY O USTALENIE PŁCI
NATURE, CULTURE AND HYBRIDS. LEGAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF TRANSSEXUALITY AND THE LEGAL SEX REASSIGNMENT PROCEDURES IN POLAND

Summary/Abstract: This paper is an attempt to analyse the history and the working practice of the legal sex reassignment procedure in Poland within the frames of Bruno Latour’s concept of „modern constitution” as explained in his works. Legal sex reassignment procedure is used by transsexual persons who want to live in their perceived gender and allows them to undergo sex reassignment surgery, which otherwise is considered illegal due to the current interpretation of §155 of Polish Criminal Code, which forbids medical procedures that permanently rid individuals of the ability to procreate, even with their consent. In order to obtain court permission for sex reassignment in their documents, transsexual individuals are required to sue their parents in the court of law. I am analysing the current legal practice and its history using Latour’s concepts of purifi cation and mediation between the categories of nature and culture. I attempt to uncover the conceptualisations of the biological and the social which underlie legal solutions to transsexuality, and to reveal the different uses of these categories in legal theory and legal practice.

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