Hayes in the House: Puberty Blocker Experiments
The journey from childhood to adulthood is challenging for many, difficult for some and tortuous for a few.
It can be even harder for young people who, struggling to come to terms with growing up, begin to question their sex. Known as gender dysphoria, this affects very few and with the kindness, patience and support of adults who listen and act responsibly, most will grow out of it, for evidence shows that medical intervention would not only be unnecessary but profoundly damaging. Compassion is measured not by how quickly we medicalise distress, but by whether we protect children’s future and respond to their present pain.
In stark contrast, at the NHS Tavistock Clinic, the horrors of which I first highlighted in 2019, thousands of children were prescribed life-altering puberty blocking drugs to prevent their natural development. Still more shockingly: over 70 of them were aged just three and four. In all, 382 children aged six and under were referred. Bourgeois liberals, who view the world through a distorted lens, saw Tavistock as an emblem of progress – in fact, it was the embodiment of wickedness and following public criticism and a damning independent report by Dr Hillary Cass, the clinic was closed.
The Cass review said that doctors must be extremely cautious about giving puberty blockers to under-18-year-olds; and the longer-term benefits and risks of treatment options should be considered. It found that young children ought to have therapy before being allowed to socially transition; and that too many decisions about changing gender had been rushed, with too little consideration given to whether children might regret their actions later in life. Alarmingly, the review revealed that childhood trauma, neglect and abuse feature heavily in the cohort of patients seeking gender change.
It is horrifying that as many as two thirds of those referred to the Tavistock Clinic had suffered neglect or abuse, with high levels of parental mental illness, substance abuse and exposure to domestic violence.
In essence, the routine prescription of puberty blockers on the NHS was ended because the evidence simply did not justify the practice. Yet now this Government is embarking on a new trial of such drugs – involving children as young as 11 – with no indication of what the success of their trial will look like.
It is known that there is evidence from other countries which the Government could draw on, rather than engaging in this dangerous experiment. It is known too that evidence exists from the 2,000 or more children who went through Tavistock - surely, the data already available is sufficient to inform policy makers.
After all, in most areas of medicine, when the risks are serious and the benefits uncertain, we become more cautious, not less. We do not justify experiments merely because the cohort is small or say that because only a limited number of children are involved, ethical concerns are minimal. For each child in the trial, the consequences are intimate and immense. For these are life-altering decisions.
G. K. Chesterton said:
“children are innocent and love justice”.
I fear that this trial will steal their innocence and deny them justice, so pray that the Government will abandon this cruel experiment and save innocent children from that fate.
