A pregnant man? Spain embroiled in sex identity debate (News Feature)

By Sinikka Tarvainen Mar 31, 2009, 12:09 GMT

Madrid - His name is Ruben Noe, and he is nine weeks pregnant.

The case of the 25-year-old, reportedly the world's first transsexual to be expecting twins, has sparked a debate in Spain on the limits of human sexual identity.

Ruben Noe Coronado was born Estefania Coronado. Like many transsexuals, the young woman from the southern region of Andalusia felt trapped in the wrong body, and realized eight years ago that she wanted to become biologically a man.

Today, Ruben has a beard, a shaved head and looks as male as any man, after undergoing hormonal treatment and having his breasts surgically removed.

He has, however, not yet had a sex change operation to remove his female reproductive organs, a situation he decided to take advantage of after agreeing with his female partner Esperanza to have a child.

At age 43, Esperanza felt too old to become pregnant, she told the daily El Mundo.

The mother of two is also losing her eyesight, and feared that a pregnancy would make her go completely blind.

'This is my last chance,' Ruben said to Esperanza about having a child before completing the transition into a man. 'I can still make use of my body.'

The couple is living in Berga near Barcelona, where they moved to flee the disapproval of their families over their relationship.

They consulted about 160 fertility clinics before finding one that agreed to help Ruben become pregnant.

The transsexual stopped his male hormonal treatment, was made to menstruate again and was fertilised with sperm from an anonymous donor.

The pregnancy is risky, because Ruben is an epileptic.

He is, however, hopeful of following in the footsteps of Thomas Beatie, the US transgender male who gave birth to a daughter in 2008.

'It is my right to have children. We are going to be a father and a mother. I don't see any problem,' Ruben says.

The case has touched off a lively debate in the country where more than 1,000 people have already changed their names into those of the opposite sex without undergoing full sex change operations, according to a figure quoted by El Mundo.

Dozens of Spanish transsexual males would like the get pregnant, the daily quoted a doctor, who did not want his name made public, as saying.

The fact that 'it can be technically done does not make it ethically acceptable,' gynecologist and reproduction expert Josep Lluis Ballesca told the daily El Pais.

'The sex change operation must be total, including a removal of the ovaries,' he said, describing people like Ruben Noe Coronado as living in a 'contradiction.'

Spanish transsexuals may have different individual opinions on the subject, but their official representatives have not criticized Coronado's decision, Mar Cambrollet, president of the Association of Transsexuals of Andalusia, told German Press Agency dpa.

'We respect diversity and everyone's invidual decision,' Cambrollet said.

'The feeling for having children has no sex,' she added.

'Which man would not give birth if he could?' Cambrollet asked.

The subject was also discussed on the internet, with many participants blasting Ruben Noe Coronado as violating the most basic laws of nature, while others were more tolerant.

'Being a parent is not a question of gender, but of attitude and responsibility,' Jofre wrote, while another participant depicted a future society in which 'being mother or father will not mean anything.'

Ruben should not be able to enjoy the advantages of being a man and a woman at the same time, Esther complained.

'In themes of sexuality, religion and politics, there are never final agreements,' another participant concluded.