 "Sex tests" by Chinese Olympic officials are "neither scientific nor humane" says the Organisation Intersex International (OII).
Chinese officials have announced they will be using chromosomal and genetic tests as well as nude examinations of women athletes at the Beijing Olympics.
According to OII, 'genetic sex' tests were dropped in 1999 by the IOC, as they were found to be invalid.
"There is no genetic test which can accurately determine an individual's sex," states Professor M. Italiano, M.B.B.S.(A.M.), advisor to Organisation Intersex International on Biosex Variations.
"These tests can only discriminate against intersexed and transitioned athletes, and in fact, they do so based upon a complete misunderstanding of scientific facts. Furthermore, there is no "sex test" used in the Olympics which can separate these individuals from each other."
Italiano also said that there was no evidence that intersexed and/or transitioned athletes have an unfair advantage over typical females and males.
OII has called on Beijing authorities to comply with the International Olympic Committee "by retracting their intention of performing these archaic and demeaning measures."
An OII spokesperson said, "When an athlete reaches elite status and has been chosen to represent her country in a world arena, the thing she needs the least is to be publicly humiliated on an international stage, based upon separatist, sexist ideology and mistaken beliefs."
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