ABSTRACT
Transsexuals do not feel that reassignment constitutes mutilation - they see it as a "restorative procedure". Yet healthy organs are removed - and in several countries surgeons who carry out this operation have had to negotiate with the legal authorities so as to avoid prosecution. The role played by surgery with respect to change in civil status is a matter of some debate. Different countries have different laws on the question. The discourse of transsexuals varies also: some protest against the obligation to undergo the operation, while others protest against the obstacles on the road to the operation, which to them is precious in that it enables them "to harmonize their body with their soul, their identity". Taking their place among the opposite sex without any actual change of sex was what those who refused to accept their assigned sex did in former times; often this was discovered only after their death.
