The birth of an intersex child was often viewed as a curse or a sign of a witch mother, especially in parts of Africa. Abandonments and infanticides have been reported in Uganda, Kenya, South Asia, and China.Infants, children and adolescents also experience "normalising" interventions on intersex persons that are medically unnecessary and the pathologisation of variations in sex characteristics. In countries where the human rights of intersex people have been studied, medical interventions to modify the sex characteristics of intersex people have still taken place without the consent of the intersex person. Interventions have been described by human rights defenders as a violation of many rights, including (but not limited to) bodily integrity, non-discrimination, privacy, and experimentation. These interventions have frequently been performed with the consent of the intersex persons parents, when the person is legally too young to consent. Such interventions have been criticized by the WHO, other UN bodies such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and an increasing number of regional and national institutions due to their adverse consequences, including trauma, impact on sexual function and sensation, and violation of rights to physical and mental integrity. The UN organizations decided that infant intervention should not be allowed, in favor of waiting for the child to mature enough to be a part of the decision-making – this allows for a decision to be made with total consent. In April 2015, Malta became the first country to outlaw surgical intervention without consent.
: 183 People with CFS have decreased scores on the SF-36 quality-of-life questionnaire, especially in the sub scales on vitality, physical functioning, general health, physical role, and social functioning; however, the sub scales for "role emotional" and mental health in CFS patients were consistent with or not substantially lower than healthy controls. Cognitive functioning
Cognitive dysfunction is one of the more disabling aspects of CFS due to its negative impact on occupational and social functioning. Fifty to eighty percent of persons with CFS are estimated to have serious problems with cognition. Cognitive symptoms are mainly due to deficits in attention, memory, and reaction time. Measured cognitive abilities are found to be below projected normal values and likely to affect day-to-day activities; for example, increases in common mistakes, forgetting scheduled tasks, or having difficulty responding when spoken to are observed.Simple and complex information-processing speed and functions entailing working memory over long time periods are moderately to extensively impaired. These deficits are generally consistent with the patients perceptions. Perceptual abilities, motor speed, language, reasoning, and intelligence do not appear to be significantly altered. When poorer health status was reported, a persons perception of their cognitive problems was frequently greater. Better physical functioning in people with CFS is associated with less visuoperceptual difficulty and fewer language-processing complaints.Inconsistencies of subjective and observed values of cognitive dysfunction reported across multiple studies are likely caused by a number of factors.