dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer) (06/11/84)
Discussing human "hermaphrodites" and the moral issues implied is a bit like discussing the biology of unicorns, wouldn't you say? "True" hermaphroditism, such as that seen in lower animals such as snails, simply doesn't exist in humans. There are instances of people with hormonal (and occasionally chromosomal) problems who are labelled colloquially as hermaphrodites, but that is generally derived only from the appearance of the person's primary and secondary sex characteristics. There are NO reported instances of people with both male and female sex organs which are fully functional (and I always used to wonder, where would it all fit if there were?) It's time to take the hermaphrodite out of the laboratory, where it always eludes geneticists and doctors, and back into the world of mythology, religion and symbols, where it has thrived for centuries. -- /Steve Dyer decvax!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA