A new study in the United Kingdom into puberty blockers is attracting fierce criticism and also has implications here in New Zealand.
The study is entitled Pathways and is being run by Kings College in London. It seeks to run a randomised trial, where young children are separated into two groups – one that will be given puberty blockers, the others not until 12 months later. Around 220 children will be involved at this stage.
Critics are rightly decrying this trial as medical experimentation on vulnerable children. The harms of puberty blockers are known and, while not well researched, it cannot be ethical to experiment with pharmaceuticals on children who have nothing physically wrong with them.
Others are pointing out that there is no way that a child can consent to this trial. It is not possible for a child to comprehend at that age what they are rejecting, or to understand what they are explicitly wanting to avoid and have never experienced (puberty). Similarly, it is not possible for parents to consent to treatments which at best have unknown side effects or, at worst, are permanently harmful.
Many are asking how this trial has been able to gain ethics approval. The idea that doctors can experiment on children would seemingly have been a major hurdle. However, as some commentators have noted, such ethics bodies have been captured by radicals.
Still others point out that this trial will be misused by gender and trans activists to continuing plying puberty blockers to children.
The original whistleblowers from the UK’s now disgraced Tavistock Clinic, clinicians Marcus Evans and Susan Evans, have written an open letter to the UK’s Secretary of State, meticulously outlining the myriad of problems with the trial. Their voices are just two of many and several members of parliament are collecting colleagues’ signatures on various open letters condemning the trial.
This trial also impacts New Zealand. This is the trial the New Zealand Government was referencing it would follow when it announced an end to use of puberty blockers on gender dysphoric children. Hopefully, the outcry in the United Kingdom will see the end of this flawed and dangerous trial, and consequently it becomes a non-issue here. Otherwise, the New Zealand Government will have to address these serious concerns itself.
This article was originally published by Family First New Zealand.
