The proposed change, which suggests that "medical change of sex is banned in Lithuania," will now be discussed by parliamentary committees.
The current wording of the Civil Code suggest that unmarried adults have a right to have a sex-change operation, providing it is medically possible. The code also makes a reference to a separate law outlining conditions and procedures of sex change; the law, however, has not been drafted yet.
The proposal to amend the provisions of the Civil Code on registration of sex change was submitted by opposition Conservatives Antanas Matulas, Vida Marija Cigriejienė, and Arimantas Dumčius, all medicine doctors by education.
They maintain that the Lithuanian society "holds a controversial attitude towards sex change surgeries, the society is not yet ready to accept the sex change practice due to psychological and social reasons, therefore, a permit to perform sex change surgeries would lead to a number of medical and ethical problems."
