Dr Cass returns NHS to evidence-based science
Those who have stood out against the ‘cult’ of gender transitioning such as JK Rowling now can feel vindicated, and gender ideologues are now having to apologise for their attacks.
Children have attracted the attention of the media recently, with the Cass report and the vindication of headmistress Katherine Birbalsingh’s stance on not allowing religious prayers in her school. The work of both these women has been greeted with much relief and gratitude, and will surely have a wide and deep clarifying impact on fractious disagreements.
The BMJ praises Dr Hilary Cass for her appeal to objective evidence, evidence that satisfies ‘hard science’. The Cass review, says the BMJ editorial, is ‘an opportunity to unite behind evidence informed care in gender medicine’, and concludes: “The Cass review is an opportunity to pause, recalibrate, and place evidence informed care at the heart of gender medicine. It is an opportunity not to be missed for the sake of the health of children and young people.” Dr Cass has returned to objective evidence based medicine and finds that the current practice of gender reassignment is based on shaky foundations.
The BMJ responds to the angry reaction to Cass’ appeal for reasoned scientific evidence with this telling paragraph, worth quoting in full for its detailed information: “One emerging criticism of the Cass review is that it set the methodological bar too high for research to be included in its analysis and discarded too many studies on the basis of quality. In fact, the reality is different: studies in gender medicine fall woefully short in terms of methodological rigour; the methodological bar for gender medicine studies was set too low, generating research findings that are therefore hard to interpret. The methodological quality of research matters because a drug efficacy study in humans with an inappropriate or no control group is a potential breach of research ethics. Offering treatments without an adequate understanding of benefits and harms is unethical. All of this matters even more when the treatments are not trivial; puberty blockers and hormone therapies are major, life altering interventions. Yet this inconclusive and unacceptable evidence base was used to inform influential clinical guidelines, such as those of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which themselves were cascaded into the development of subsequent guidelines internationally”.
It remains to be seen whether the authorities will be able to apply the classic scientific methodology to troubled children who find it difficult to get through the changes of puberty. Janet Daley, a Telegraph columnist, explains the difficulties of girls coming to adolescence with its bodily changes, challenges and anxieties. She thanks Dr Cass for her wisdom and sensitivity in proper caring treatments for the condition called gender dysphoria. The philosopher Kathleen Stock, in Unherd.com, takes a severe line against the fashionable gender medicine industry, headlining her article, “How a cult captured the NHS, society fails when it treats children like adults”. She pulls no punches in describing the surgical and hormonal interventions on the bodies of children, with no evidential support, as akin to medieval trepanning of skulls to let demons out. She thinks that Cass is if anything too softly softly but thinks the public does need deprogramming and educating again in modern scientific method, not faux ideology claiming to be science.
Those who have stood out against the ‘cult’ of gender transitioning such as JK Rowling now can feel vindicated, and gender ideologues are now having to apologise for their attacks. It is a tragedy that Dr Cass herself is being harassed and vilified by fundamentalist ideologues and has said, in a Times interview, that she can no longer use public transport for fear of insult. She has also denied accusations of ignoring 90 ‘studies’ which in fact she had examined and found to be lacking in evidenced support.
This is an appalling indictment and goes to confirm Kathleen Stock’s polemic against ‘the cult’ which is not resorting to reasoned evidence, just emotive hostility. Strangely enough, the kind of opposition headmistress Birbalsingh has been experiencing. Let us hope that Dr Cass’ reaffirmation of the need for reasoned objective evidence can be applied in other febrile culture disputes to overcome emotive ideologies.
Church of England Newspaper Leader Comment April 25th
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
