To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Gender Neutral Parent Defends Choice To Let Baby Decide Its Own Sex

Gender Neutral Parent Defends Choice To Let Baby Decide Its Own Sex

The baby's sex is currently undefined.

Mel Ramsay

Mel Ramsay

Remember last week when the first baby ever was issued with a genderless health card?

Weirdly, the world-first didn't happen in America for once and it was instead in Canada.

Kori Doty gave birth to Searyl Atli in November last year and is campaigning to keep the baby's sex off all official records, arguing that a 'visual inspection' of a baby is not capable of determining what gender a person will identify as when they grow up.

The parent, who is a non-binary person, identifying as neither female nor male, has now appeared on Good Morning Britain in order to defend their decision after a backlash and a lot of criticism.

Credit: ITV/Good Morning Britain

Speaking to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, Kori explained that they believe their child will be able to decide their own gender when they reach about four or five years old.

Susanna then asked the obvious question - how can a baby be genderless if they have genitals that determine whether they're male or female?

Kori explained: "Searyl's private parts are private, whether they conform to the biological standard or not, like you said it's not actually about the definition and gender identity which will develop later in life.

"What someone's genitals look like when they are born doesn't actually give us an accurate indication of who they will be."

The case of the gender-free health cards has been reported as a world first by Canadian media.

Credit: Instagram

Kori is part of the Gender-Free ID Coalition, and believes that those who later identify with a different gender than the one assigned to them at birth can face lots of problems further down the line.

Speaking to CBC, they said: "When I was born, doctors looked at my genitals and made assumptions about who I would be, and those assignments followed me and followed my identification throughout my life.

Searyl's health-card has a 'U' under sex. Credit: Gender-Free ID Coalition

"Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then."

The parent has claimed that local authorities have refused to issue a birth certificate without a gender printed on it, so they have applied for a review of the case and brought in a lawyer. According to CBC, there are seven other complainants also wanting to change their birth certificates.

Credit: Instagram

In the UK, campaigners have called for a third gender option on British passports for people who who don't identify as either male or female.

Featured Image Credit: Instagram/ITV

Topics: Baby, Sex