Hang on. So you actuallyagreewith concerns on this thread and that the Tavistock is rudderless and providing medical treatment without consideration of children's best interests?
If I read you right, you're saying that whether children had medical treatment or not was completely up to the parents and that it should be completely up to the parents?
Unless they're getting medical treatment for their child out of a vending machine, that shouldn't be the case.
Gender identity clinics are like any other kind of medical clinic- they are supposed to be staffed by professionals who will only provide treatment if it is in their patient's interest.
Children's rights matter.
If I read an article publicising disorders causing low blood pressure in children, and become convinced my child has the issue, no NHS doctor will prescribe medication on my say so. And it goes on like that for every condition.
Similarly, if my child is diagnosed with a condition such as cancer, and I wish to deny treatment due to my own beliefs, social services and the courts will become involved because my child has a right to appropriate medical treatment and to life.
Let's consider tattoos. If my child wants a tattoo at 11 and I believe my child is mature enough to make that decision, my child still can't get one legally because tattooists can't provide that service to under-eighteens. Do medical professionals have fewer responsibilities than tattooists?
These laws and regulations are there to protect children from foolish, neglectful and abusive and simply misinformed parents, and "parents allowing children to make decisions they are clearly not mature enough to understand the long term effects of" falls under that umbrella.
It is not supposed to happen. If this situation, as you yourself worded it, is happening on any kind of scale, this is an institutional failure to protect children by those whose role is to do exactly that.
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