His statement, “The marriage of an indeterminate intersex person is not valid until their status becomes clear”: the descendants of Adam—and other living creatures as well—are either unequivocally male, unequivocally female, or of ambiguous sex. The status of those who are unequivocally male or female is clear, whereas one whose sex is ambiguous is called an indeterminate intersex person.

In the chapter on inheritance, the definition is: one for whom it has not become clear whether they are male or female, whether they possess both male and female sexual organs, have a single opening through which both urine and excrement pass, or have no opening at all.

In the chapter on marriage, however, an indeterminate intersex person is one who has both male and female sexual organs—that is, a male organ and a female genital opening—while it has not become clear whether they are male or female; for example, if they urinate from both, and there is no other distinguishing sign to establish whether they are male or female. Such a person may not marry: they may neither marry a woman nor marry a man. They may not marry a woman because they may be female, and a woman may not marry a woman; nor may they marry a man because they may be male, and a man may not marry a man. Thus, they remain unmarried until their status becomes clear. Once it does become clear, if they are male, they may marry women; and if they are female, they may be married by men. This remains prohibited for a time, until their status becomes clear.

Question: Is it permissible to perform surgery on such a person in order to make them one of the two sexes? If their sex is clear, then there is no doubt that surgery is permissible. That is, if it becomes clear that the person is female, it is permissible to perform surgery to remove the male organ. If it becomes clear that the person is male and has, for example, two breasts, then it is permissible for him to undergo surgery to remove them, because breasts are a defect in males, just as a man’s male organ is a defect in females. But if the case remains indeterminate, and the person is an indeterminate intersex person;