Friday, 29 March, 2024
HomeMedico-Legal'Informed consent' by children for gender transition to be tested

'Informed consent' by children for gender transition to be tested

A 23-year-old woman who is taking legal action against a UK National Health Service (NHS) gender clinic says she should have been challenged more by medical staff over her decision as a teenager to transition to a male, BBC News reports. A judge gave the go-ahead for a full hearing of the case against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. Lawyers will argue children cannot give informed consent to treatment delaying puberty or helping them to transition.

The Tavistock said it always took a cautious approach to treatment.

Gender identity charity Mermaids said that people face a long wait for access to such services, that they can save lives and that very few people regret their decision. The clinic based in Hampstead, north-west London, which runs the UK's only gender-identity development service (GIDS), added that it welcomed an examination of the evidence in this contentious area.

The report says Keira Bell is one of the claimants and will give evidence in the judicial review, which is likely to be heard in early summer. The second claimant, known only as Mum A, is the mother of a 15-year-old girl with autism, who is awaiting treatment at the clinic.

Mermaids CEO, Susie Green, has defended the current process, which she said was based on years of research, and said she hoped the judicial review would "shine a light" on young people's experiences. She is quoted in the report as saying that many people who approached the charity were "very distressed" and that research had suggested puberty blockers could help reduce rates of self-harm and suicide. And she said it was "not proportionate" to take away services because of "a very small number" of people who regretted undergoing medical intervention.

NHS England is an interested party in the legal case. It has already announced an independent review of its policies on the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. It describes this as part of a planned examination, which will be undertaken by a panel of independent experts.

[link url="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51676020"]Full BBC News report[/link]

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