Alice Dreger wrote:

> I am working with a group of physicians, scholars, and patients' rights activists to improve the treatment of people born intersexed ("hermaphroditic").  One of our goals is to change the medical nomenclature to do away with the unhelpful primary division of intersex types into "true hermaphrodite, male pseudohermaphrodite, and female pseudohermaphrodite."  (These divisions are unhelpful for a variety of reasons, but primarily because the term "hermaphrodite" freaks out parents -- on this point all clinicians agree.)
>
> My goal is to try to figure out how extremely pathologizing medical nomenclature has been changed to less harmful -- e.g., "mongoloid idiot" changed to "trisomy".  I want to figure this out so we can think about how to effect a change in the intersex medical nomenclature.
>
> Do any of you have any insights as to how these changes have happened in the past?  I am interested in knowing specifically what steps had to be taken for these kinds of changes to occur.
>
> Many thanks!
> Alice Dreger
> [log in to unmask]
>
> ***********************************************************
> Alice D. Dreger, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of Science & Technology Studies, Lyman Briggs
> (Adj. Faculty, Center for Ethics & Humanities in the Life Sci.)
> Holmes Hall E-35, Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48825-1107 (U.S.A.)
> Phone:  517-353-4628
> Fax:  517-432-2758
> email:  [log in to unmask]
> **********************************************************