Children must not be given puberty blockers
by Kellie-Jay Keen, spiked:
The NHS has stopped giving these drugs to under-16s and private providers must, too.
As a result of a landmark High Court ruling earlier this month, children must understand ‘the immediate and long-term consequences of the treatment’ to be able to consent to the use of puberty blockers. This means doctors now have to seek approval or support from the courts before prescribing puberty-blocking drugs to children in order to avoid liability.
[…] This is a cause I have been campaigning on for years. I am hoping there will be a review of gender reassignment more broadly. And, while this is a controversial topic and many people will disagree, I do not think there’s any such thing as a trans child. I firmly believe we have a duty to protect children from these harmful interventions.
But the battle is far from over. Numerous parents have turned to crowdfunding sites to raise money for private prescriptions and to circumvent the new NHS guidelines. Private providers still state explicitly that ‘ We do not deny treatment on the basis of age’. Clearly, there is a need to change the law to prevent children accessing these harmful drugs.
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