If changing sex became easy, should society allow it?

I didn't vote. History and lived experience doesn't matter to gender critical people, unless it does.

The only 'acceptable' point in life to 'change sex' would be in the womb, before birth. Most people would object because we have ethics. So, there is never an acceptable point where a person can change sex.

We all know gender critical people believe this.

I was answering in the context of the proposed scenario.

It's not about whether it's "acceptable" to change sex, it's whether it's possible - and it's not.

It never seems to work in the Science fiction i read. They still feel like the same people with the same attitudes. Rather like tourists or dressups.

I didn't vote. History and lived experience doesn't matter to gender critical people, unless it does.

The only 'acceptable' point in life to 'change sex' would be in the womb, before birth. Most people would object because we have ethics. So, there is never an acceptable point where a person can change sex.

So imagine some miraculous Star Trek far future, where you can go through a transporter thing that breaks your body down, then rewrites your dna and reassembles your body into a body of the opposite sex. In that case, you would henceforth BE the opposite sex, regardless of your previous history. Of course such a woman should be legally recognised as a woman, and allowed into women's spaces.

It's not your experiences that make you a woman, it's your body. At the moment it is totally impossible to turn a man's body into a woman's body, and there is no prospect whatsoever that it will ever be possible. Extreme cosmetic body modifications that make some men resemble women don't change their sex.

So imagine some miraculous Star Trek far future, where you can go through a transporter thing that breaks your body down, then rewrites your dna and reassembles your body into a body of the opposite sex. In that case, you would henceforth BE the opposite sex, regardless of your previous history. Of course such a woman should be legally recognised as a woman, and allowed into women's spaces.

It's not your experiences that make you a woman, it's your body. At the moment it is totally impossible to turn a man's body into a woman's body, and there is no prospect whatsoever that it will ever be possible. Extreme cosmetic body modifications that make some men resemble women don't change their sex.

So imagine some miraculous Star Trek far future, where you can go through a transporter thing that breaks your body down, then rewrites your dna and reassembles your body into a body of the opposite sex. In that case, you would henceforth BE the opposite sex, regardless of your previous history. Of course such a woman should be legally recognised as a woman, and allowed into women's spaces.

It's not your experiences that make you a woman, it's your body. At the moment it is totally impossible to turn a man's body into a woman's body, and there is no prospect whatsoever that it will ever be possible. Extreme cosmetic body modifications that make some men resemble women don't change their sex.

I did wonder this.

It feels hard to say that they could truly ever change sex if they would have the same history. Women cannot have the history of men, so how can a man retain his experiences as a man without retaining their manhood in some way?

So the premise is that if you can easily reconfigure your genetics and physical form to completely switch sex, should this be legally permitted?

If we have the technology available to do that, the same breakthrough would also mean the door is not only unlocked for changing any existing physical characteristics, but also growing entirely new body features.

Once that technological genie is out of the bottle, enough money will get you the chance to have whatever body you can envisage - there'll be at least one place in the world that is happy to take your money. Some of the bodies created this way will even be life sustaining.

The lawmakers across the globe will then frantically try to work out whether legal limits can and should be applied to any and all excessive or creative anatomic traits. Current society will cease to function, when someone can walk through the door a typical human, and walk out of the door an unrecognisable monstrosity that can overpower and outthink anyone who objects.

So, frankly, someone deciding to simply swap sex will be the least of concerns.

Yes, I think people are assuming the surround sound/micronutrition/hormonal rollercoaster/day and night biological feedback the embryo gets from its mother is replicable. It’s probably key in developing the foetus to be exposed to so much fluctuating information on being human.

I always think of that poor woman who died in America and they kept her alive for her baby, and wonder how her baby is doing. I don’t think it’s well.

We do police those things though.

For example, age limits, such as being over a certain age, before you can get a tattoo.

An important age limit is the age of consent regarding sexual activity. You can't consent to being choked to death.

Even plastic surgery has limits. For example, regarding transplants, you can't just have any old donor, you need the right donor who is a match to the recipient. Maybe you were thinking of cosmetic surgery, but even then, there are regulations.

The eunuch maker was jailed.

The man who consented to being killed and eaten gave consent, but this didn't stop his killer from being jailed.

Society can't and shouldn't police what people do with their bodies. Someone enforcing something on someone else's body is wrong of course.

Tattoos
Body modifications
Scarification
Plastic surgery
The type of sex we have
Who we allow to have access to our body

We are all entitled to autonomy with what we do with our own body.

I'm really not certain of that at all.

I don't believe we will be able to replicate the feedback between foetus and mother whereby the mother's body adjusts the conditions for the foetus.

We have a terrible track record of thinking we can artificially replicate a natural process but failing to recognise juat how complex it is. Look at the mess we made with UPFs by not understanding how much we need from food other than calories, and that's way simpler than building a baby.

Society can't and shouldn't police what people do with their bodies. Someone enforcing something on someone else's body is wrong of course.

Tattoos
Body modifications
Scarification
Plastic surgery
The type of sex we have
Who we allow to have access to our body

We are all entitled to autonomy with what we do with our own body.

Yeah, it would require time travel as well as the transmutation thing.

So the premise is that if you can easily reconfigure your genetics and physical form to completely switch sex, should this be legally permitted?

If we have the technology available to do that, the same breakthrough would also mean the door is not only unlocked for changing any existing physical characteristics, but also growing entirely new body features.

Once that technological genie is out of the bottle, enough money will get you the chance to have whatever body you can envisage - there'll be at least one place in the world that is happy to take your money. Some of the bodies created this way will even be life sustaining.

The lawmakers across the globe will then frantically try to work out whether legal limits can and should be applied to any and all excessive or creative anatomic traits. Current society will cease to function, when someone can walk through the door a typical human, and walk out of the door an unrecognisable monstrosity that can overpower and outthink anyone who objects.

So, frankly, someone deciding to simply swap sex will be the least of concerns.

So the premise is that if you can easily reconfigure your genetics and physical form to completely switch sex, should this be legally permitted?

If we have the technology available to do that, the same breakthrough would also mean the door is not only unlocked for changing any existing physical characteristics, but also growing entirely new body features.

Once that technological genie is out of the bottle, enough money will get you the chance to have whatever body you can envisage - there'll be at least one place in the world that is happy to take your money. Some of the bodies created this way will even be life sustaining.

The lawmakers across the globe will then frantically try to work out whether legal limits can and should be applied to any and all excessive or creative anatomic traits. Current society will cease to function, when someone can walk through the door a typical human, and walk out of the door an unrecognisable monstrosity that can overpower and outthink anyone who objects.

So, frankly, someone deciding to simply swap sex will be the least of concerns.

I'm really not certain of that at all.

I don't believe we will be able to replicate the feedback between foetus and mother whereby the mother's body adjusts the conditions for the foetus.

We have a terrible track record of thinking we can artificially replicate a natural process but failing to recognise juat how complex it is. Look at the mess we made with UPFs by not understanding how much we need from food other than calories, and that's way simpler than building a baby.