Transgender children may sue the NHS

Following a landmark high court ruling the NHS has announced that children with gender dysphoria will now need a court order before they are legally allowed to take puberty blockers.

 

The case was brought against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the UK's only gender identity development service for children, by 23-year-old Keira Bell who began taking puberty blockers before later "de-transitioning".

 

Ms Bell said the clinic should have challenged her more when, at age 16, she decided to transition to a male. The case was also brought by "Mrs A", who is the mother of a 15-year-old autistic girl currently on the waiting list for treatment. 

 

At a hearing in October their lawyers said children at puberty were incapable of "properly understanding the nature and effects of hormone blockers" and argued there was a high risk that children who started taking hormone blockers would later begin taking cross-sex hormones, which they said caused "irreversible changes".

 

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, and trusts to which Tavistock referred young people with gender dysphoria specifically University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, argued that taking puberty blockers and later cross-sex hormones were entirely separate stages of treatment.

 

But the High Court judge Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Lewis and Mrs Justice Lieven concluded, "The child needs only to understand the implications of taking puberty blockers alone... in our view this does not reflect the reality. The evidence shows that the vast majority of children who take puberty blockers move on to take cross-sex hormones."

 

The court added that the treatments were "two stages of one clinical pathway and once on that pathway it is extremely rare for a child to get off it". In the judgment the judges said children under 16 had to understand "the immediate and long-term consequences of the treatment" to be able to consent to puberty blockers.

 

The judges ruled, "It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers. It is doubtful that a child aged 14 or 15 could understand and weigh the long-term risks and consequences of the administration of puberty blockers."

 

A spokesman for the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust said it was "disappointed" at the ruling and feared it would cause anxiety for patients and their families, and suggested it would appeal against the ruling. A spokesman for NHS England said, "We welcome the clarity which the court's decision brings. The Tavistock have immediately suspended new referrals for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the under-16s, which in future will only be permitted where a court specifically authorises it".

 

The NHS also updated its guidance to reflect the judgment, so "no one under the age of 16 can now be referred for puberty blockers unless a court rules it is in the child's best interests"

 

Solicitor Paul Conrathe, speaking outside court, called the ruling "a historic judgment that protects children who suffer from gender dysphoria" and claimed that "a culture of unreality" had become embedded in the Tavistock Trust that "may have led to hundreds of children receiving this experimental treatment without their properly informed consent".

 

He further added, "Christmas has come early if you're a medical negligence lawyer. There are probably hundreds of children who could be suing the Tavistock on the grounds of this judgment."

 

 

PM Law 

Sheffield Solicitors