TIME Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.

Current subscribers for full access. Not a TIME subscriber? .

A BOY WITHOUT A PENIS

He was one of a set of infant twin boys when, in 1963, his penis was damaged beyond repair by a circumcision that went awry. After seeking expert advice at Johns Hopkins Medical School, the parents decided that the child's best shot at a normal life was as an anatomically correct woman. The baby was castrated, and surgeons fashioned a kind of vagina out of the remaining tissue. When "she" grew older, hormone treatments would complete the transformation from boy to girl.

The case became a landmark in the annals of sex research, living proof of the prevailing theory of the...

Time.com on Digg

POWERED BY digg

Quotes of the Day »

AMINA JANJUA, chairperson of Defense of Human Rights. Pakistan's all-powerful military faces a rare challenge by the courts over the case of 11 men who were allegedly abducted and tortured by the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.