A prominent Queensland law professor has raised concerns that children with gender dysphoria are being rushed into treatment without sufficient consultation.
University of Queensland Law Professor Patrick Parkinson issued the appeal after Jillian Spencer - a psychiatrist at the Queensland Children's Hospital - was stood down from clinical duties in mid-April, following a patient's complaint, after she questioned the use of puberty blockers without an appropriate mental health assessment.
“We have a leading psychiatrist being silenced potentially from raising these issues in her hospital,” he told Sky News Australia. “Is she being targeted because like doctors all over the world she's raising serious issues about young people in her care?” Queensland Children’s Gender Service had 922 patients on its books in 2022 who were prescribed cross-sex hormones, 102 of whom were adolescents, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Professor Parkinson holds concern children are being over-diagnosed without proper consultation or mental health assessment. “What is really a medical issue, a mental health issue, a child protection issue has been caught up in the politics of LGTBQI rights and that is a dangerous mix,” he said.“We haven’t seen yet the wave of regret that I suspect is going to occur because kids are being put on these pathways without proper mental health assessment.” University of Queensland Professor Patrick Parkinson has called for a public inquiry into how children are being rushed into gender reassignment. Picture: James Croucher QCH operates on the basis that gender dysphoria causes serious mental health problems if not treated early and in accordance with internationally recognised practice, as prescribed by the World Professional Associated for Transgender Health. The medicine model has come under scrutiny in the UK, with a High Court ruling in 2020 that children under the age of 16 “considering reassignment are unlikely to be mature enough to give informed consent”. The action was brought against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs England’s only gender identity development service in 2020, before the court of appeal overturned the judgment. Following a review of gender identity services for children conducted by Paediatrician Hilary Cass, the controversial clinic was ordered to close. An Australian mother, who wishes to stay anonymous, watched her daughter surgically transition and says it has left her child in a terrible state. “How can somebody who has that much mental anguish who has fairly fresh scars on her arms and stuff. How can she be able to consent to life-changing surgery?” she said.
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Calls for national inquiry into minors changing gender after child psychiatrist suspensionA child protection expert and law professor is calling for a national inquiry into how children are being rushed into gender reassignment. His appeal follows the suspension of a child psychiatrist from a Queensland hospital who questioned the use of puberty blockers without the appropriate mental health assessment.
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