Puberty Blockers … Just in Case.

Doctors Urge Puberty Blockers for Children Considering Sex Change

By Kathleen Gilbert at LifeSiteNews

“CHEVY CHASE, Maryland, January 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An international medical organization has recommended that children as young as 12 who question their sexual identity should be given drugs to block the physical changes of puberty.

The New Scientist reports that the injunction comes as part of a set of guidelines, the first of its kind, published last month by the Endocrine Society. The ‘Guidelines For Health Organisations Commissioning Treatment Services For Trans People’ call for healthcare administrators around the globe to provide full coverage for hormonal and cosmetic procedures sought by individuals identified as ‘transsexual.’”

Let’s see. Just in case gender identity confused children might want to change their sex in the future, let’s inject them with puberty blockers, inhibiting the growth of their natural reproductive organs. Sound good? Um…no. Not by a long shot. How about curing their gender identity confusion? Oh, but I forget, that would be the most obvious solution and one that doesn’t lend itself to proper scientific experimentation. News flash! Our children are not lab rats on which you can examine the effects of your experimental drugs. Let’s get some real, healing solutions here, those that dig to deep and address the very root of the problem rather than facilitate and nurture the complex.

“The doctors project that relatively new puberty-blocking drugs could "buy time" for young teens who may later decide they are unsatisfied with their sex, and thereby avoid undergoing the bodily changes that belong to the sex that they are dissatisfied with.”

And worst of all is the blatant and unapologetically transparent assault on parental rights being called for by the professionals promoting this document and procedure.

“The document also noted that children under 16, who would normally need parental consent, ought to be allowed “treatment” against their parents' wishes, if they have been deemed "Gillick" competent by a clinician - referring to the 1985 court case Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbeach which found that if a child is found to have adequate understanding the requirement of parental consent may be overcome.”

Last, but not least, is the ridiculous notion that though many people are concerned for the safety of the child patients, this procedure would actually be in their best interest "to obtain lasting personal comfort in terms of phenotype and gender role.” So claims Peggy Cohen-Kettenis of the Free University of Amsterdam Medical Center, who helped write the new guidelines.

Forgive my vehement skepticism, but what on earth does a pre-pubescent child know about “phenotype and gender roles?” This is where parents are an absolutely imperative part of the safety equation for children. “Parents know best” isn’t just a cutesy little phrase. It’s true. Parents know their children better than any other living human being on the planet, including the child in question. I was definitely a different person at 21 than I was at 11. Definitely. At 21, having survived the perils of a very typical, egocentric, limited-view adolescence, I finally developed a bit of maturity, wisdom, and most important, reasoning and long-term perspective – qualities that would produce a different decision about my “phenotype and gender role” comfort than would have been made at the tender, innocent age of 11. Eliminating parents from medical (or any) decision-making with regards to their tender, innocent children is absurd…and scary.

Your puberty blocker protester,
~Pearl

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Technorati Tags: Puberty Blockers,Gillick v. West Norfolk and Wisbeach,The New Scientist,Parental Rights,Adolescents,Peggy Cohen-Kettenis,Free University of Amsterdam Medical Center,Radical Medical Procedures,Endocrine Society,Sex Change,Guidelines For Health Organisations Commissioning Treatment Services For Trans People,Transsexual,Phenotype,Gender Confusion,Gender Identity