Health Ministry officials in Vietnam said the country could legalize sex change operations. A proposal to this effect is to be sent to the government in September and if cleared will allow people to undergo sex change operations legally.
Nguyen Huy Quang, deputy director general of the ministry's legislation department revealed that people who choose to undergo this operation will still have the right to identify their own sex, as regulated in the Civil Code."In Vietnam now, sex change is illegal," Quang said. "Once this decree comes into force, people will have a chance to change their sex after ... examinations by doctors who will decide what their actual sex is." People will be allowed to go ahead with the operations only after through physical and psychological examinations, he said.
If the law is passed then the government would identify which hospitals can carry out the operations. "I think that some of them can do it, but we have to reconsider their ability in terms of equipment and professional ability," he said.
