Should Teens Receive Experimental Treatment instead of Therapy?

             Families, communities, and nations are stronger when young people are prevented from making life-alternating decisions. Some progressives and government officials claim that children should have the right to change their genders or get abortions with or without their parents’ knowledge and permission. Nicole Russell at The Daily Signal reported that someone finally used common sense. 

A High Court in the U.K. issued a landmark judgment this week that will protect children 16 years of age and younger from receiving potentially harmful hormone replacement therapy.

The High Court ruled that treatments often used to aid gender “transitions” – like puberty blockers and other sex-change hormones – are too experimental and are no longer able to be administered to anyone 16 years old or younger without permission from the court.

This is an incredible ruling for those who have been spreading the word for years about the dangers of transitioning.

The ruling against Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which operates the U.K.’s sole “gender-identity development service,” is a good sign that the U.K. is finally waking up to the harm puberty blockers do to young people….

            The decision said that the puberty blockers and other sex-change hormones are too experimental” for children and teenagers. According to Russell’s article, the decision of the U.K. High Court was praised by Ryan Anderson at The Heritage Foundation:

Children who suffer from gender dysphoria deserve real therapy aimed at helping them feel comfortable with their own bodies. Adults should never encourage a child to reject their body, nor interfere with their natural pubertal development. Blocking puberty and administering cross-sex hormones to a minor is not only an experimental set of medical procedures but is a profound violation of medical ethics. American courts and legislators should follow the U.K.’s lead and prohibit these unethical experimental procedures from being performed on minors.

            It particularly troubling that children and teens feel the need to change their sex. It is even more troubling that governments are allowing them to make this important decision without parental input. In most medical decisions, the least invasive treatment is usually recommended to be tried first. The least invasive treatment for gender dysphoria is therapy that would help a young person to feel comfortable in their own body.   Families, communities, and nations are stronger when progressive ideas or programs are not allowed for children and teenagers.