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Archdiocese of Denver
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A Vision of the Human Person
Supported by Science and Medicine
I
n addition to the Church's teaching on the body and human sexuality, there
is much testimony from science and medicine that reinforces the truth of
human sexuality and the damage that occurs in attempting to hinder its proper
development and exercise. This section provides a brief summary of this testi-
mony, which reinforces an anthropology that takes seriously the nature of the
human person as a body-soul unity.
Sex Determination and Sexual Differences
The sex of a human being has been and continues to be determined biolog-
ically, a fact known since the discovery of sex chromosomes more than a hun-
dred years ago. From conception, the sexual identity of a person is tied to his or
her chromosomal makeup. The person's chromosomes (XX or XY) direct the
development of the person's body so that, at maturity, the body is equipped to
procreate.
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Every cell in the human body can be identified as male or female.
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8 Only the Y chromosome carries the Sry gene, which directs the organization of the developing
human being as male; a human being without the Sry gene develops as female.
9 T.M. Wizemann and M.L. Pardue, eds. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human
Health: Does Sex Matter? (Washington. D.C.: National Academies Press, 2001), https://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK222288/. See also, Janine Austin Clayton. "Applying the
New SABV (Sex as a Biological Variable) Policy to Research and Clinical Care," Physiology &
Behavior 187, no. 1 (April 2018): 2-5, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/
S0031938417302585#!.
