Research project
Examining the Possibility of Legislative Prohibitions Designed to Improve Healthcare Experiences for Intersex People in the UK: Lessons from Europe
- Start date: 5 January 2026
- End date: 1 January 2029
- Funder: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
- Value: £599,602.60
- Primary investigator: Professor Mitchell Travis
- External co-investigators: Fae Garland, University of Manchester (External Primary Investigator); Angelika Von Wahl, Lafayette College, US; Mireia Garces de Marcilla Muste, University of Liverpool; Inês Espinhaço Gomes, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal
This project considers what lessons the UK Government can learn from the European experience of introducing legislation specifically designed to improve the lived healthcare experiences of intersex people. To do so, it examines how different European States have introduced and implemented legislation concerning intersex people and to what extent these have successfully enabled change in healthcare practice.
Intersex embodiment occurs where natural bodily variations in sex characteristics fall outside of the sex binary. Currently, medical protocol inthe UK allows surgical and hormonal interventions on intersex children and infants to ensure their bodies cosmetically fit within the sex binary (e.g. Moriquand et al 2016; NASPAG 2018; PEDSENDO 2020). These invasive interventions have received extensive critique from international and human rights bodies for being unnecessary; lacking longitudinal evidence; producing extensive physical and mental harms; and for failing to obtain the individual’s consent.
Since 2015, six European States have introduced legislation designed to prohibit or delay such interventions until intersex individuals can participate in decision-making. These reforms have received wide international praise from activists, academics and international bodies like the Council of Europe and the UN (Garland and Travis 2023). However, little is known about the implementation experiences and impact of these laws.
The UK is under increasing pressure to introduce such reforms from domestic and European Intersex Organisations and supranational bodies and yet there has been little public debate on this issue. We urgently need to know whether such legislative prohibitions should be introduced into the UK and if so, how. However, there lacks a solid evidence-base from which to make informed policy decisions. The project’s overarching aim is to provide that evidence-base by collecting data concerning the experience of Malta, Portugal, Germany and Spain who are all at different phases of implementation.
Our key objectives are to:
- Compare the four legal frameworks;
- Explore the implementation experiences of these laws;
- To determine how these laws have changed intersex lived experience;
- Assess how far legislative prohibitions will improve intersex healthcare experiences;
- Identify core lessons for activists and policy-makers; and
- Consider whether the UK should introduce similar reform.
To assist our analysis and centre the voices of those most affected by legal reform, we will use qualitative interviews with intersex people, healthcare practitioners and policymakers in our comparator countries. Additionally we will interview stakeholders across the UK to ascertain what they want, need or envisage law’s involvement in this area to be. By comparing these jurisdictional experiences, the project assesses whether legislation is capable of challenging prevailing professional standards of healthcare revealing much needed insight into the potency of intersex-specific legislative reform and the potential for introducing such legislation into the UK context.
This project has considerable reach beyond the UK, offering insight to any individuals/groups/politicians considering ways to introduce meaningful change for intersex people and protecting the bodily integrity of intersex children. It will co-analyse and co-produce research briefings with intersex groups directly aimed at policy-makers and organisations setting out best practice for designing and implementing law reform.
Project aims
- Compare the four legal frameworks;
- Explore the implementation experiences of these laws;
- To determine how these laws have changed intersex lived experience;
- Assess how far legislative prohibitions will improve intersex healthcareexperiences;
- Identify core lessons for activists and policy-makers; and
- Consider whether the UK should introduce similar reform.