Changement de sexe à l’état civil de la personne transsexuelle et conséquences sur la famille

Abstract

ObjectivesThis article recalls the legal requirements for a changing legal gender on official identity documents for transsexual persons in France and possible evolutions, under the influence of international legal norms and especially the influence of European legislations. Legislation is keenly awaited, as the system set up by the French Court of Cassation (last resort appeals) is considered to be a source of legal instability. MethodThis influence of the legal provisions in force outside France can also be seen in the consequences of sex change and a new legal identity on the family and especially on the life of marital couples (cohabitation, civil solidarity pact and marriage) and on filiation (the situation of a person who is already a father or a mother, adoption, medically assisted procreation and gestational surrogacy). ResultsThis article explore a paradigm shift entailing the primacy of the individual over the group. Thus, the individual appears to be becoming the measure of all things, with the primacy of individual rights, so much so that one can wonder is there is not also a privatisation of civil status. DiscussionIn a similar vein, there is a tendency to changes in the way the human body is apprehended, by a gradual erosion of the theory of the inalienability of the human body in favour of a theory, or at least a phenomenon, of objectification of the human body, whether one's own of that of another. ConclusionConsequently, it is plain that the analysis of these phenomena (the primacy of the individual and the objectification of the human body) is beyond the scope of Law and belongs to the ethical dimension. The approach therefore needs to be trans-disciplinary, as each discipline is in position to contribute to the discussion. This issue of “L’évolution psychiatrique” provides evidence along these lines. Nevertheless, and this is to be welcomed, the scope of reflexion is not exhausted by the present paper. For instance, what are the appropriate outcomes for minor children and protected adults?