RT Article
T1 Not just a tragic compromise: The positive case for adolescent access to puberty-blocking treatment
JF Bioethics
VO 35
IS 9
SP 925
OP 931
A1 Wenner, Danielle M.
A1 George, B. R.
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/177657477X
AB Within bioethics as well as in broader clinical practice, support for transgender and gender-questioning adolescent access to pubertal suppression has often relied heavily on the desire to prevent risky, self-destructive, and suicidal behavior. We argue that framing justifications for access to puberty suppression in this way can actually be harmful to both individual patients as well as to the broader trans population. This justification for access to care makes such access precarious, limits its scope, and introduces perverse incentives to the patient population that is being served. We go on to offer an alternative, positive defense of access to puberty-blocking treatment for transgender youth grounded in the child's right to an open future. We argue that decisions related to pubertal suppression are both importantly weighty and potentially irreversible, and show why this justification is preferable to so-called “informed consent” approaches.
K1 Transgender
K1 right to an open future
K1 puberty-blocking treatment
K1 puberty suppression
K1 Adolescent
DO 10.1111/bioe.12929