Saturday, July 05, 2008 Manila Times Internet Edition:LOS ANGELES: An American man who was born a woman before undergoing gender realignment surgery has given birth to a baby girl, US media reported Thursday.
Thomas Beatie, who is legally male but decided to keep his female sex organs during chest reconstruction surgery and testosterone therapy, attracted worldwide attention in April after revealing his pregnancy.
The 34-year-old gave birth to a baby girl at a hospital in Bend, Oregon, on June 29, People Magazine reported.
“The only thing different about me is that I can’t breastfeed my baby. But a lot of mothers don’t,” the magazine quoted him as saying.
It said the girl is Beatie’s first child, and he had given birth naturally, not by Caesarean section.
Beatie, who sports a beard, was dubbed the “pregnant man” after appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s television talk show to discuss his pregnancy.
“I feel it’s not a male or female desire to have a child. It’s a human need. I’m a person, and I have the right to have a biological child,” he told the chat show queen.
Beatie’s unusual situation first became public when he wrote an article in the leading US gay magazine The Advocate in March, entitled “Labor of Love.”
“To our neighbors, my wife, Nancy, and I don’t appear in the least unusual,” he wrote, explaining that his wife was unable to have a child after undergoing a hysterectomy.
So he chose to become pregnant by artificial insemination, he said.
“Our situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns,” Beatie wrote, adding the couple had experienced opposition from health care professionals, friends and family.
One doctor refused to treat the couple, after consulting an ethics board.
“How does it feel to be a pregnant man? Incredible. Despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the man that I am,” Beatie wrote.
-- AFP
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