@StellaAndCrow
Positrans for those whose dysphoria is severe and all involved feel that blockers as a child/adolescent are the best path, then they can still go to the courts and present the evidence, and the courts can allow the treatment to go ahead provided that it is in the child's best interests.
A reminder again of the eight criteria the judges set down:
(i) the immediate consequences of the treatment in physical and psychological terms;
(ii) the fact that the vast majority of patients taking puberty blocking drugs proceed to taking cross-sex hormones and are, therefore, a pathway to much greater medical interventions;
(iii) the relationship between taking cross-sex hormones and subsequent surgery, with the implications of such surgery;
(iv) the fact that cross-sex hormones may well lead to a loss of fertility;
(v) the impact of cross-sex hormones on sexual function;
(vi) the impact that taking this step on this treatment pathway may have on future and life-long relationships;
(vii) the unknown physical consequences of taking puberty blocking drugs; and
(viii) the fact that the evidence base for this treatment is as yet highly uncertain
Personally, I cannot imagine my own very bright children being able to understand these issues if I was to sit down with them and go through one by one to gain adequate consent. So then I think about how other children, who might be dysphoric of thinking, or ASD, or intellectually impaired, or suffering from trauma from abuse might then process these questions and adequately consent.
But it seems advocates and their therapists in that article are convinced that they can. And I say good for them. In that case, present it to a judge and there won’t be a problem.
The only possible complaint an advocate might have with having to present this extremely competent child and their consent to a judge is that the process might take too long. Which would only serve to exemplify that advocate as someone who thinks bypassing adequate consent is morally acceptable.