Gender-affirming treatments are banned in young people to protect them from possible serious damage to their bodies
The medical risk of gender-affirming treatments aimed at suppressing puberty in diagnosed transgender children is an issue that involves medical, psychiatric, social and ethical aspects. Current treatment is under debate in several health areas, but it is certain that suppressing puberty produces serious and sometimes irreversible damage in the developing body (read HERE and HERE).
The majority of children diagnosed with gender identity disorder of childhood […] grow up to be cisgender (non-transgender) adults. In other words, they return to their biological gender.
The main problem is the accurate diagnosis of transgender children and adolescents. Read HERE our report on the current transsexual diagnosis. With regards to this major issue, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) says that “The diagnosis also serves to alert health professionals that a transgender identity in childhood often does not develop seamlessly into an adult transgender identity. Available research instead indicates that the majority of children diagnosed with gender identity disorder of childhood […] grow up to be cisgender (non-transgender) adults with homosexual orientation. In spite of the claims of some clinicians to be able to distinguish between children whose transgender identity is likely to persist into adolescence and adulthood and those who likely to be gay or lesbian, […], etc., no valid method of making a prediction at an individual level has been published in the scientific literature” (read HERE and World Psychiatry (WPA). 2016; 14(3): p. 205-21). Read our special report on this issue Transsexuality diagnosis and treatment. Medical and psychiatric findings (HERE).
American states move to obtain gender-affirming treatments banned
In this respect, an article published by the Scholl Law Williams Institute of the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) (April 2021), entitled Prohibiting Gender-Affirming Medical Care for Youth, reports that 21 states have introduced bills to deny gender-affirming treatments to transgender youth and 9 other states are still studying similar bills (Read HERE). The authors estimate that 45,100 youth would be affected by these laws.
We excerpt the content we consider to be of most ethical interest: “Most of these bills propose to make it a crime or a cause for professional discipline for medical providers to deliver gender-affirming care to minors. Bills in Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas also include penalties for parents who encourage or facilitate minors’ access to gender-affirming medical care. In three other states—Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina—school employees would be prohibited from withholding information about a child being transgender from that child’s parents, while a similar requirement proposed in North Carolina would apply to all state employees. The bill passed in Arkansas, and bills under consideration in Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, and Tennessee, would allow individuals to file civil suits for damages against medical providers who violate these laws. Bills in Arkansas and Montana provide mechanisms for the state Attorneys General to file suit against medical providers to enforce compliance.” The article then goes on to mainly cite articles that support transgender treatments in adults. As a law journal, its medical approach is of minor interest, considering that rigorous recent studies show the great damage of this procedure in children and young people.
From an ethical and biomedical perspective, this movement in the US shows that the medical policies espoused so far by LGBT activists have been dismissed by scientific evidence. We congratulate the US health authorities and lawmakers for protecting the health of American youth, and hope that many others will follow suit.
Leave A Comment