This isnt even about the capacity of patients to consent. This is into clinical malpractice and ethically dubious conduct and procedure which children have been caught up in. This is significant.
I agree, is hugely significant. In the end, it will be the malpractice legal cases which bring the whole sorry mess to a conclusion.
Ultimately, today’s decision indicates that clinicians have been acting contrary to the law regarding medical treatment of children. The high court wasn’t issuing new diktats, they were reviewing whether current law was being applied. The tavi lost the case and have had to immediately change their procedures. Their work was literally in opposition to the law.
Despite being outwith the scope of this review, the judges’ assessment of evidence also suggests widespread malpractice in the care of adults with gender dysphoria. It is pleasing that the case may signal the beginning of the end of poor treatment, but more depressing that we ever got into this mess. More cases to come, I think.
Finally, I’m rather upset at the poor quality of science teaching these healthcare professions appear to have received. Every doctor has science a levels. Every doctor has been taught medical ethics at university. How have they managed to reach and maintain positions within GIDS while understanding neither how experiments work (ie you have to actually measure the outcomes), nor the basics of consent (participants must understand that they are part of an experiment)? To be frank, my year 7 science class understand these two concepts.