In a hearing which will raise issues about the legal recognition of the rights of Irish transsexuals, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal early next month by a dentist who was registered at birth as a male but later underwent a sex-change operation.
The appeal is against the High Court's refusal to direct that she be described on her birth certificate as female.
The appeal by Dr Lydia Foy (58), of Athy, Co Kildare, who married in 1977 and fathered two children prior to undergoing gender-reassignment surgery in 1992 after being diagnosed as a transsexual, will be heard on November 8th. The Supreme Court was told this week the appeal is ready to proceed.
In a 130-page judgment delivered in July 2002, Mr Justice Liam McKechnie refused to grant orders to Dr Foy directing the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the State to describe Dr Foy as female on her birth certificate.
On the basis of his findings from medical and scientific evidence given to the court, he ruled that Dr Foy was born male with conforming biological structures.
However, while rejecting Dr Foy's application, Mr Justice McKechine said that behind the proceedings was a tragedy and story of human proportions. He expressed the hope that the days when people with gender-identity disorder were derided and abused were "long gone".
He also appealed to the legislature to keep the situation of transsexuals under constant review and to consider meeting their needs through legislation.
Dr Foy's High Court application was supported by the Free Legal Advice Centres.
It was opposed by the Registrar, the State and Dr Foy's wife and daughters, who were notice parties to the proceedings.
The family said that altering the birth certificate would render the marriage void and this would have a profound effect on the status of Mrs Foy and the children.
The High Court heard that Dr Foy's marriage ended in the 1990s. In 1993 she changed her name by deed poll.
Mr Justice McKechnie's decision was delivered just two days before the European Court of Human Rights delivered a judgment on July 11th, 2002, in favour of a British transsexual's claim that the British government had violated her rights.
That Strasbourg court's decision, in the case of Christine Goodwin, is expected to be referred to in Dr Foy's appeal.
While the Supreme Court is not obliged to follow judgments of the European court, the Goodwin decision greatly increases the chance of Dr Foy succeeding before the European court should she choose to take a case there.
