2006년 대법원 결정을 계기로 본 성전환(증)자에 대한 법학과 의학의 협력 메커니즘

The purpose of this research paper is to review both medical and legal aspect regarding transsexuals in the wake of the gender alteration case that the Supreme Court made a final judgment on June 22, 2006. The findings of this research indicated that medical and legal countermeasures against transsexuals have been performed separately without any mutual cooperation. Based on these findings, the researcher suggests establishing a mechanism like the following: (1) Since the Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) is a type of issue that should be regulated by the autonomous internal regulations of medical profession, an organization of preliminary inspection such as a tentatively named “Deliberation Council on SRS” could be established at a professional medical institution as an autonomous inspection organization. This method would be the objectivity and medical justification for the SRS which is operated prior to the gender alteration. This method could also improve the reliability of the SRS. (2) It could be one of the solutions that the tentatively named “Deliberation Council on SRS” is specified in the “Exemption law of gender alteration and renaming of transsexuals (drafting),” which is currently under the enactment stage. However, since the preliminary inspection committee suggested above is a self-regulation organization of expert groups, it is not necessarily needed for a legal basis for the establishment and management of such committee. Therefore, the establishment and management of a “Deliberation Council on SRS” could guarantee transparency in the medical treatment process and also could persuade the judicial officers. Furthermore, the establishment of the above-mentioned preliminary inspection committee could play an important part in professional responsibilities of public lawyers as well as could function as a role of cooperation of law and medical science.