The National Human Rights Commission (HRC) judged that discrimination should be eliminated, such as excluding patients based on gender when transgender people are admitted to hospitals.



Subsequently, the Human Rights Commission announced on the 26th that it had recently recommended the Minister of Health and Welfare to prepare guidelines regarding hospitalization of transgender people.



According to the Human Rights Commission, transgender A, who switched gender from male to female, tried to be admitted to a university hospital in Seoul due to drug allergy in October 2021.



At the time, she received hormone therapy, but she had not undergone sex reassignment surgery or legal gender correction.



The hospital side informed that Mr. A had to be hospitalized in a male ward because he was a male on resident registration.



In response, Mr. A filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, saying, "It is discrimination based on gender identity."



The hospital said, "There is no separate standard for hospitalization of transgender patients, but according to the medical law, it is a principle to operate hospital rooms separately for men and women, and the standard is the legal gender."



He added, "In 2021, two transgender patients other than Mr. A were hospitalized, and all of them used a single room at their own expense."



The Ministry of Health and Welfare also explained, "There are no separate guidelines or guidelines related to hospitalization of transgender people, and only stipulates that 'inpatient rooms are operated separately for men and women' according to the Medical Law Enforcement Rules."

Human Rights Commission "There are people who do not belong to either gender"

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The Human Rights Commission, which investigated the case, saw that Mr. A was treated unfairly.



This is because it was judged that the allocation of hospital rooms based only on legal gender was against the principle of equality.



The Human Rights Commission pointed out, "It is inevitable for medical institutions to classify inpatients according to specific criteria and assign them to wards," but "it is also a hard reality that it is difficult to distinguish only with these criteria, or that there are people who do not fit either male or female." I did.



As there are transgender people everywhere in society who do not match their natural biological sex (legal sex) and gender identity (the gender they perceive themselves to be), policies should also consider various gender identities.



At the same time, she explained, "Trying to include men and women in the dichotomous category based only on legal gender is a measure that goes against the basic principle of equal treatment that 'others should be treated differently'."



However, "the reason why the complainant was treated unfavorably is because the regulations of related agencies such as the Ministry of Health and Welfare were insufficient" and "The Minister of Health and Welfare needs to prepare separate guidelines related to the hospitalization of transgender patients in order to guarantee transgender people's right to access medical care." "he said.



(Photo = Yonhap News)