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Doctors Urge Puberty Blockers for Children Considering Sex Change
LifeSiteNews ^ | January 5, 2009 | By Kathleen Gilbert

Posted on 01/06/2009 12:48:04 PM PST by GonzoII

Monday January 5, 2009


Doctors Urge Puberty Blockers for Children Considering Sex Change

By Kathleen Gilbert

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."

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.

“We recommend that adolescents who fulfill eligibility and readiness criteria for gender reassignment initially undergo treatment to suppress pubertal development,” New Scientist quoted the guidelines as saying.

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.

The recommendations rest upon the results of trials at a Netherlands clinic where puberty blockers have been administered to more than 70 children under sixteen, with one patient as young as 11.

Currently Canada, Australia, Germany, and some clinics in the U.S. permit the puberty-blocking drugs.  The effects of the drug are designed to wear off should the patient discontinue use, but the long-term effects of chemically delaying puberty are virtually unknown.

Peggy Cohen-Kettenis of the Free University of Amsterdam Medical Center, who helped write the new guidelines, acknowledged that "people are always afraid that it will be harmful for the children," but added that "what they never take into account is that it is also harmful to not give them this treatment."  The document emphasizes that the goal for treatment of such individuals is "to obtain lasting personal comfort in terms of phenotype and gender role."

Dr. Russell Viner of the Institute of Child Health warned that early manipulation of natural development could tamper with a child's maturing self-perception. 

"The real question is: if you intervene early in a young person who would otherwise change their mind, do you reinforce their gender identity disorder? Do you remove the chance for change?" asked Viner.

Bioethicist Wesley Smith told LifeSiteNews.com that encouraging the use of untested chemicals that interfere with normal biological development treads a dangerous line.  "Do we know what the impact of such heavy hormonal interference will be on the health of these young people?" he asked.  "If not, doesn’t this border on unethical human experimentation?"

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09010509.html


Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2sick4words; childabuse; culturewar; customization; disorders; evil; genderiddisorders; heshe; hesheit; homosexualagenda; madscientists; medical; medicine; mentalhealth; moralabsolutes; parenting; prolife; psyciatry; puberty; shehe; transgendered; vaccines
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To: GonzoII

“Boredom is having too many choices.”

— Soren Kierkegaard, if I remember correctly.


21 posted on 01/06/2009 1:01:44 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine (Is /sarc really necessary?)
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To: GonzoII

Peter Pan Drugs?..............


22 posted on 01/06/2009 1:01:45 PM PST by Red Badger (I was sad because I had no shoes to throw, until I met a reporter who had no feet.....)
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To: GonzoII
Of late there have been a number of articles about this issue. It appears that the pro-homosexual crowd is going to keep pushing this agenda until it is accepted by at least a majority of society. Giving drugs to children, allowing the surgical mutilation of children, is morally wrong, and will result in who knows what nightmare in the future?
23 posted on 01/06/2009 1:02:23 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: GonzoII

When do I get to go Claire Wolfe on these motherhuggers?


24 posted on 01/06/2009 1:02:39 PM PST by Lazamataz (Illegal Zombies: Just Eating the Brains that Ordinary Americans Won't Eat)
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To: Jacquerie

Isn’t it sad that stories like this are becoming main stream and even sound acceptable to many.


25 posted on 01/06/2009 1:03:06 PM PST by Red6
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To: GonzoII

Insanity - I will ping it out a bit later for sure. !!!!


26 posted on 01/06/2009 1:04:13 PM PST by little jeremiah (Leave illusion, come to the truth. Leave the darkness, come to the light.)
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To: GonzoII

Why not? You have doctors pushing hormone supressing birth control on minors as they undergo the changes of puberty.


27 posted on 01/06/2009 1:07:24 PM PST by weegee (Obamunism, just another word for the policies of a NeoCom.)
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To: GonzoII

As usual, LifeSite is skewing the story to fit their agenda. A lot of the children who are “questioning their gender identity” and being examined/treated by doctors because of it, actually have clear anatomical and/or chromosomal abnormalities that make their gender a less than black-and-white matter. These children are either going to have to have medical intervention to steer their bodies in one direction or the other, or be left to mature into a form which will not enable them to function anywhere near normally as either male or female. For those children, it does make a lot of sense to postpone making irreversible medical decisions (including the decision to allow breasts or facial hair to develop when that development won’t correspond to the child’s genital anatomy) until they are a bit older, and better able to participate in the decision-making.


28 posted on 01/06/2009 1:07:36 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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To: trisham

The same crowd that is critical of Islamic genital mutilation champion this form of genital mutilation.


29 posted on 01/06/2009 1:08:18 PM PST by weegee (Obamunism, just another word for the policies of a NeoCom.)
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To: GonzoII

Remember that in CA, the gender of a child is determined by that child. Whatever the child says “it” is must be respected. If he wants to be called a she, the school must go along with it, and vice versa, and the locker room or bathroom is to be allowed accordingly. Fun fun fun.


30 posted on 01/06/2009 1:09:34 PM PST by Yaelle
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To: weegee
If the Islamic mutilation was to affect apparent gender, they would support it as well.
31 posted on 01/06/2009 1:10:24 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: GonzoII

Doesn’t giving kids with Gender Identity Disorder puberty blocking drugs sound akin to giving a depressed person a gun? Or, like telling a Schizophrenic to go ahead and listen to the voices in their head. What the heck happened to treatment (as if I didn’t know)?


32 posted on 01/06/2009 1:10:24 PM PST by Try_Freedom
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To: GonzoII

Am screaming here, can you hear me? THESE ARE CHILDREN!!!!


33 posted on 01/06/2009 1:13:35 PM PST by BAW (Enjoying every minute of the Illinois political theater.)
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To: GonzoII
“Doctors Urge Puberty Blockers for Children Considering Sex Change”

I have a better idea...Give them gender appropriate porn mags until they come to their senses and see what they would be missing!

34 posted on 01/06/2009 1:14:37 PM PST by Beagle8U (FreeRepublic -- One stop shopping ....... Its the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)
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To: Yaelle

What if he wants to be a space ranger and she wants to be a princess and he wants to be a basketball star and she wants to be a pony?


35 posted on 01/06/2009 1:16:48 PM PST by weegee (Obamunism, just another word for the policies of a NeoCom.)
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To: BAW

Exactly right.


36 posted on 01/06/2009 1:20:43 PM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: GonzoII
< shaking cane at young whippersnappers >

They should all be put on puberty blockers until they're twenty-five.

< /cane shake>

37 posted on 01/06/2009 1:21:14 PM PST by KarlInOhio (On 9/11 Israel mourned with us while the Palestinians danced in the streets. Who should we support?)
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To: GonzoII

Welcome to Hell folks! Watch your step when getting off the crazy train.


38 posted on 01/06/2009 1:22:19 PM PST by mkcc30 (He died for us let's live for him.)
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To: GonzoII

Why should a child even be considering a sex change? Maybe they have adults in their lives (homosexual adoption) that are encouraging them to think about the subject?


39 posted on 01/06/2009 1:22:21 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: BAW

AMEN! When they start screwing up our kids then it is by God time to freakin’ FIGHT!


40 posted on 01/06/2009 1:23:38 PM PST by mkcc30 (He died for us let's live for him.)
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