Swedish Lawmaker Fights Sterilization Requirement for Transition Surgeries  

A Swedish lawmaker is seeking to end a nearly 40-year-old policy requiring sterilization for individuals who undergo sex reassignment surgeries.

The Local reports that Barbro Westerholm, a Liberal Party MP, plans to introduce a motion in the country's parliament in the fall to remove a 1972 requirement mandating sterilization for transition surgeries.

"This cannot wait any longer," Westerholm said. "People must be allowed to live their lives as they wish as long as they do not harm anyone else."

Maria Larsson, vice party leader of the Christian Democrat Party, opposes the policy change, however: "A sex-change means that you willingly subject yourself to treatment in order to change your gender, and if you do that, it is also reasonable that you give up some gender-specific properties of your old sex," Larsson said in a speech at a party conference last month.

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