RoastedRhino t1_iryj5br wrote
An interesting point would be to re-assess whether we need gender/sex on IDs at all.
What for? It is not that helpful for identification: that's what the photo is for.
Surfs_The_Box t1_irz1f42 wrote
As a medical professional it is very important.
RoastedRhino t1_irzkzmz wrote
Why? (Serious question)
Xeludon t1_is0ajk9 wrote
Because men and women are biologically different, and a significant amount of medical things that work for one don't work for the other and can even be fatal.
RoastedRhino t1_is0cwb1 wrote
OK, but would a doctor/ER decide based on an ID? Which in some cases would list the gender, in some cases the biological sex?
If medical reasons matter, then allergies should be there before biological sex, and in any case the medical data should not be there to be inspected by anybody that handles ID.
Of all things, biological sex seems something that a doctor can ask or (if the patient cannot respond) verify by other means.
From what I know, they don't even trust your blood type indication and test you anyway (and provide you with universal donor blood in the meanwhile).
Xeludon t1_is0dxt6 wrote
In an emergency situation, with an unconscious patient who is close to death, what do you think is easier; confirming by I.D. or getting permission to go through private medical records, then sorting through them on a computer until you find the sex of the patient?
RoastedRhino t1_is0i9nx wrote
In an emergency situation close to death? You look at the person and you take the best educated guess of whether they are biologically male or female. Do you think they look at their driving license?
Xeludon t1_is0jl1l wrote
There's many, many emergency responders in this thread who are all saying they do, and a quick Google search will show you that they do if they need to.
If you have a very butch or very effeminate person and you can't tell, do you think taking a guess is appropriate?
Guessing in an emergency situation gets people killed.
ace_of_spade_789 t1_iryxih0 wrote
I would imagine that it might be useful for medical purposes, like having whether or not you're a donor on the license.
But I also imagine a medical bracelet is more useful than a license especially if someone loses theirs or doesn't take it with them.
There are a lot of things on a license that are unnecessary like weight and height with renewal periods in my state being 8 years and they just use the same photo, I'm sorry I don't quite weigh the same as I did in 2016 as I do now so why have that on there.
The kinds of information governments require for different identifications are sometimes mind boggling.
RoastedRhino t1_irzky61 wrote
Height is actually used for identification. I saw the training for people that check IDs and the first thing they were told to do is to estimate the height before looking at the ID, then check that. It’s something hard to fake.
But yes, everything else should either have a purpose or go.
ace_of_spade_789 t1_is3lq0g wrote
True height would be one that's hard to change too much over the years once you stop growing.
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